KARACHI As thousands of people attended the funeral of Mufti Saeed Ahmed Jalalpuri here on Friday, police booked Zaid Hamid, who claims to be a security consultant and strategic defence analyst, for the murder of the prominent religious scholar, his son and two associates.

Mufti Saeed Jalalpuri of Aalmi Majlis-i-Tahaffuz-i-Khatm-i-Nabuat, his son Huzaifa Jalalpuri and close associates Fakhruz Zaman and Abdul Rehman were returning from Jamia Masjid Khatman-un-Nabi in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Thursday night when four to five gunmen sprayed their car with bullets, killing all of them.

SSP Javed Mahar of Gulsha-i-Iqbal Town said the FIR had been registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempt to murder), 109 (punishment of abetment if the act abetted committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) and 34 (common intention) against Zaid Hamid (Zaid Zaman Hamid) on the complaint of Mufti Jalapuri's close aide Hafiz Shabbir.

He said that although the text of the FIR did not mention the profession of the accused, the investigators were told by the complainant that they had nominated Zaid Hamid who appeared in TV shows and delivered lectures mainly on security and defence issues.

Anwaar Ahmed, another aide of Mufti Jalalpuri, told Dawn that the scholar used to actively expose Zaid Hamid who, he alleged, was a close associate of 'a person who had laid claim to prophethood'.

Anwaar Ahmed said “In late 1990s a man named Yusuf Kazzab emerged and claimed prophethood, who was aided and assisted by Zaid Hamid. At that time he was known as Zaid Zaman Hamid but currently he has cut his name short to Zaid Hamid”.

He said he had insisted that both names be mentioned in the FIR, because his organisation suspected his role in the killing of Mufti Jalalpuri.