ISLAMABAD — In a stunning twist that has rattled Karachi’s security and aviation circles, a citizen claims he was robbed inside the Domestic Departure area of Jinnah International Airport — and that the crucial CCTV footage is now mysteriously vanishing.
According to a formal complaint submitted to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Malir, Faizyab Hussain, son of Kifayat Hussain (CNIC 42401-0243998-9), stated that on 30 September 2025, around 10:45 a.m., two unidentified men in plain clothes dragged him into an “Aviation Room,” snatched his mobile phone (SIM 0313-2682508), roughed him up, and threatened him with “dire consequences” if he dared to raise his voice.
When the Airport Police allegedly refused to register an FIR, Faizyab turned to the court. The Additional District & Sessions Judge-VIII, Malir Karachi, hearing Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 3886/2025, issued a clear directive on 21 October 2025 ordering the SSP Malir to assign an inquiry “to an officer not below the rank of DSP” and, if a cognizable offence is found, to proceed according to law. But what followed sounds straight out of a crime thriller. The complainant says that soon after the court’s order, the very people involved — or their accomplices — began bragging that “the CCTV footage has been managed and will vanish within days.” Even more shocking, when the victim visited the station, the SHO himself allegedly showed him a merged video file on a laptop, where the critical footage between 10:30 and 11:15 a.m. — the window of the incident — had been deleted or overwritten.
The missing footage reportedly includes feeds from cameras C-04, C-07, C-11, C-19, and the Aviation-corridor PTZ. Since the Jinnah Airport surveillance system runs on a 28–30-day loop, Faizyab warns that every passing hour could permanently erase the digital trail of the crime, sabotaging both the court-mandated inquiry and any future FIR. In a desperate, top-priority application received by the SSP Office, District Malir, on 25 October 2025, Faizyab urged immediate action: the sealing and forensic imaging of the original Network Video Recorder (NVR) and hard drives that contain footage from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the day of the incident. He demanded that forensic experts from NADRA’s Video Analytics Lab or the Punjab Forensic Science Agency make bit-for-bit mirror copies before any further tampering could occur. He also requested that all CCTV-room staff be formally warned that any deletion, overwriting, or manipulation of the footage would amount to interference with judicial proceedings, punishable under the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003, Section 204 of the Pakistan Penal Code, and Section 21-H of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. Quoting landmark rulings — Asad Ali vs State (2021 SCMR 887) and Nisar Ahmed vs CAA (2018 CLC 1543) — Faizyab reminded authorities that preservation of original CCTV data is legally mandatory and any negligence at this stage could mean the collapse of justice.
The letter also invokes Rule 6 of the Airport Security Force Rules 1975 and Section 5 of the Civil Aviation Authority Act 1982, urging the Director General ASF to immediately seal the original hard drives/NVRs and secure footage of all Domestic Departure and Aviation/Admin Corridor cameras.. “The CCTV record is my only witness,” Faizyab wrote, warning that “if it disappears, it will prove that power, not law, rules inside Pakistan’s most ‘secure’ airport.”. Copies of the plea have been forwarded to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, and the Additional District Judge-VIII Malir, ensuring that the country’s top judiciary is aware of the ticking clock and the alleged digital cover-up inside Karachi’s aviation hub. The complaint was officially received and stamped by the SSP Office, District Malir Karachi, on 25 October 2025, marking the beginning of what could become one of the most explosive internal security investigations of the year.
