Relatives and community members on Friday gathered in protest as a man who had gone 'missing' three days earlier was found murdered near Karachi Superhighway a day earlier, officials and witnesses said.

The body of 34-year-old Moosa Khan bearing torture marks was recovered near an abandoned police check-post off the Northern Bypass on Thursday, SITE Superhighway police SHO Sohail Khan told Dawn.

He was buried in a local graveyard in Khilji Goth off Superhighway.

The SHO quoting the father of the deceased, Jalad Khan, said that Moosa and his brother, Essa Khan were allegedly taken away by men in plainclothes from their home in Gadap Town three days ago.

Their family had not filed a complaint about the men's disappearance or kidnapping at Gadap police station. Instead, they approached a local court over the matter, but Moosa's body was recovered before the court could take up the petition.

The police have recorded the statement of the deceased's father and a First Information Report (FIR) will be lodged over the two brothers' ‘kidnapping’ and the subsequent murder of Moosa, SHO Khan added.

Following Moosa's burial, relatives along with members of the Aqakhel tribe staged a protest near Toll Plaza for a while.

They demanded that a judicial inquiry be conducted into the alleged extra-judicial killing of Moosa and that Essa be recovered immediately.

Their father whilst speaking to reporters declared that his sons had no association with any criminal group. He claimed that his deceased son had been earlier arrested in a ‘fake’ drug case and was acquitted of the charges by a court.

Both Essa and Moosa were stated to be clothing merchants at Jama Cloth market who used to import clothes from China.

The protesting tribesmen warned that if their demands were not fulfilled within the next 24 hours, they would be compelled to block the Superhighway in protest.

Meanwhile, Malir Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Adeel Hussain Chandio while talking to Dawn denied that Moosa was taken away by police.

The incident comes less than a month after the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the alleged extra-judicial killing of Waziristan native Naqeebullah Mehsud.

Naqeebullah, who was residing in Karachi's Sohrab Goth area, was among the four killed in an "encounter" days after allegedly being picked up from a tea stall near the area in January. Following an uproar over social media, former SSP Malir Rao Anwar had insisted all four killed were terrorists — a claim refuted by a high-level police inquiry that declared Naqeeb innocent.

The demand for the arrest of Naqeeb's killers eventually transformed into a movement for rights of citizens of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), with a protest in Islamabad ending with assurances from the prime minister to take up the protesters' demands at relevant forums.