ISLAMABAD: A retired brigadier, against whom the National Account­ability Bureau was conducting multiple inquiries, was found dead at his Islamabad residence on Friday morning.

The body of retired Brig Asad Munir, who worked both with the military as well as the government, was spotted in the morning by his wife who later informed police about it.

Police said the body was found hanging with the ceiling fan in the study of his apartment located in highly guarded Diplomatic Enclave where he lived with his wife, a driver and a cook.

Secretariat SHO Inspector Asjad Mehmood told Dawn that he died between 2.30am and 4am and it appeared to be a case of suicide.

The body was shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for medico-legal formalities. However, the family did not allow doctors to perform a post-mortem examination.

Based on the external examination of the body, Pims spokesperson Dr Wasim Khawja told Dawn that no marks of injury and signs of resistance were found.

A mark of strangulation was found around the neck and his nails turned blue, Dr Khawja said, adding that it appeared that the victim died due to hanging.

SHO Mehmood said that the family did not want any legal course of action, but the police initiated legal proceedings under Section 174 (police to inquire on suicide, etc) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

He said the police would investigate and verify the facts and record the statements of the family and the doctors who examined the body before concluding whether it’s suicide or not.

The retired brigadier’s funeral prayer was offered here and he was laid to rest at H-11 graveyard.

During his career, retired Brig Munir held key military posts. He was also the Member-State of the Capital Development Authority.

Only a day before, the executive board of NAB approved a corruption reference against him for illegally getting a plot in Islamabad’s Sector F-11.

‘Suicide note’ addressed to CJP

A senior police officer told Dawn that the victim’s family found a letter in the study, but it was yet to be handed over to police. However, pictures of the letter were available with police, he added.

Also, the letter was widely circulated on social media.

The officer said that the family had a printout of the letter, which was typed on a computer. The document dated March 15 bore no signature. It appeared that the victim typed it moments before taking the extreme step, he said.

He said that investigators would ask the family to give them the original letter so that they could examine it along with the computer and the printer used to type the document and get the print.

In the purported suicide note, the retired brigadier stated: “I am committing suicide to avoid humiliation, being handcuffed and paraded in front of the media.

“I request you, the honorable chief justice, to take notice of NAB’s officials conduct so that other government officials are not convicted for the crimes they had not committed.”

He stated that since April 2017 NAB had made his life “miserable”. He stated that NAB had initiated three investigations and two inquiries against him in the last one year.

Questioning the performance of NAB and its investigating officers, he stated: “I am giving my life in the hope that you the honorable Chief Justice will bring positive changes in the system where incompetent people are playing with the life and honor of citizen in the name of accountability.”

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2019