Hongkonger murdered in Islamabad hotel room

A Hong Kong businessman and his Australian associate have been murdered in an execution-style killing in their hotel room in Pakistan.

Charles Yeung, the chief financial officer of Capital Globe, and Shakhil Haque, who was the firm's chairman and co-founder, were found dead in their room at the Continental Inn guesthouse in Islamabad last Friday evening, the company confirmed yesterday.

Police in Pakistan have told the Daily Times newspaper that the bodies were found on a bed, with a pistol fitted with a silencer and wiped clean of fingerprints next to them.

An autopsy found both had been shot once in the chest, probably on Thursday night, police said.

They had been drugged, the investigators said, their room was ransacked, and their passports and other valuables had been stolen.

Police said the murders were related to a business dispute with a company based in Karachi.

The police said they had recovered Haque's ID card, which had a fake residential address in Karachi.

Haque's body had been released but Yeung's was still being held by the mortuary staff.

A number of suspects have been rounded up for questioning, including the owner and several employees of the guesthouse.

Police are also searching for a man in his late 20s who visited the victims in their rooms and stayed for two hours, The Australian newspaper reported yesterday.

The men had been in the city on business for a week, hosting meetings in a second room they had hired in the city's five-star Marriot hotel.

Capital Globe chief executive Rob Duff would not discuss yesterday what business the men were doing in Pakistan.

Duff said the deaths of their colleagues in such a manner had been difficult for staff at the firm.

'It's always difficult to lose any member of staff. We don't have any more comments to make out of respect for their families. The investigations are still ongoing,' he said.

'But from a company perspective, it's business as usual.'

Capital Globe's head office is in Hong Kong, in the St George's Building in Ice House Street, Central. It also has offices in Islamabad, Karachi, Sydney and Cairns, Queensland.

Capital Globe describes itself on its website as a private investment and international business consulting group that 'provides a wide range of consulting services to a substantial international client base that includes corporations, multinational conglomerates and high net worth individuals'.

The website continues: 'In this dynamic, globalised world, we continuously seek out investment opportunities for our company and introduce our clients to investment structures, thereby allowing them to participate actively in the world growth market.'

The company is divided into four divisions, financial and global markets, property development, food and beverages, and shipping and logistics.

A report in the Cairns Post said Haque was involved in several substantial property developments in Cairns, which is in the far north of Australia.

Haque, a 41-year-old Pakistani-born resident of Sydney, had been planning to build a A$100 million (HK$704 million) hotel and residential twin tower development in the centre of the city.