Sindh Forms JIT to Carry Out Mir Raza Commission Findings
The Sindh JIT Mir Raza case moved forward on Saturday, October 24, 2026, as the Sindh government formed a joint investigation team (JIT) and separate committees to implement the recommendations of a judicial commission that probed the death of Mir Raza Ali.
Raza, a graduate who ran a waffle business under the name Wafflix, went missing from his PECHS residence in Karachi in the early hours of July 28. His body was later found within the jurisdiction of Gulistan-e-Johar Police Station. A post-mortem was carried out at Jinnah Hospital, and the body was buried the same day.
Police first treated the death as suicide. The family contested that view, saying the body bore visible torture marks. The judicial commission later ruled the death a murder, not a suicide.
Sindh JIT Mir Raza case: who sits on the team
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Irfan Baloch will head the JIT, according to an official letter. The team will include senior representatives from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Pakistan Rangers Sindh, and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA).
The Sindh government has written to all relevant institutions, asking them to nominate officers of grade 18 or above as JIT members.
The home department has also written to the inspector general of Sindh Police about action against officers and personnel named in the commission’s report. The commission’s observations and the recommendations of the cabinet’s subcommittee have been forwarded to the provincial police chief.
Action against doctors and officers
The home department also wrote to the health secretary: on the commission’s recommendation, the cabinet subcommittee proposed removing Dr Osama Sheikh from his post, with two years of training.
A separate committee has also been proposed to investigate the death, with the Sindh government asking the Ministry of Interior to nominate a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officer of grade 20 or above to head it. Separately, a one-member committee of Additional Inspector General of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Zulfiqar Ali Larak will review the roles of police officers named in the report.
That committee will review every officer named in the report, assess their performance against the commission’s observations, and investigate Inspector Ghaus’s role in the burning of the crime scene. It will then report to the Sindh inspector general of police.
What the commission found
The Judicial Commission, headed by Sindh High Court Judge Justice Omar Sial, submitted its report to the chief minister on October 15, 2026.
The commission said the police surgeon, in early August, pointed out anomalies in the first post-mortem report, the document police had relied on for their suicide theory. The body was exhumed on August 8, and the final report, issued around August 31, confirmed a perforating firearm injury from the back, ruling out suicide.
“The bullet trajectory, the unusual location of the wound for a self-inflicted injury, the absence of blood, the state of the body, the principles of medical jurisprudence, acid burns and the anesthesia detected in the blood, all clearly excluded suicide as the cause of death. It was a murder,” the report stated.
The commission called the police investigation an “epic failure” and warned that the trust deficit between the Sindh police and society had become “nearly unrectifiable” in this case. It said the possibility of an active cover-up in the initial stages “cannot be conclusively ruled out”, and called on police to acknowledge their failures and start formal inquiries against the officers responsible.
Where the case stood before this step
Feature Pakistan has followed the case through each stage: the formation of the JIT under DIG Irfan Baloch, the judicial commission’s report on police failure, the Sindh cabinet’s review of the commission report, and the timeline of Raza’s final hours.
Saturday’s step moves the case from recommendations to action. The JIT must now establish the truth of a murder where much of the physical evidence was compromised early on.
What happens next
The institutions must now nominate their JIT members, and the committees must start work on the officers and doctors named in the report. The family, which challenged the suicide theory from the start, will watch whether the new teams produce answers the first investigation did not.
Frequently asked questions
Who heads the new JIT in the Mir Raza case?
DIG Irfan Baloch, with senior representatives from the ISI, IB, Pakistan Rangers Sindh, and the NCCIA.
What did the judicial commission conclude?
It ruled the death a murder, not a suicide, citing the bullet trajectory, wound location, acid burns, and anesthesia in the blood.
