Five people arrested in connection with the death of a taxi driver in 1994

Five people have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a taxi driver who was shot dead 30 years ago in what police called an “execution”.

Ethsham Ul-Haq Ghafoor, aged 26 and known to his friends and family as Shami, was killed in his taxi on November 22nd 1994 with his hands tied and bound to the steering wheel.

Nottinghamshire Police revealed that four men aged 64, 57, 52, 51 and one woman aged 47 were arrested on suspicion of his murder on Wednesday morning in the Sneinton and Bakersfield areas of Nottingham.

Police launched a new appeal for information on Friday, the 30th anniversary of the killing, as the charity Crimestoppers offered a £50,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.

Assistant Chief Constable Rob Griffin said: “Firstly, I would like to thank the community and the media for sharing our appeal for information. This was a dreadful crime that has left Shami’s family waiting 30 years for answers.

Following our appeal, we have received numerous calls from the public. We know that the answer to Shami’s murder lies within the community, and we would encourage anyone with information, no matter how small, to please continue to get in touch with our officers or through Crimestoppers.”

Speaking on behalf of the family, his sister Aisha Ghafoor, 58, who was in her 20s when he was killed, previously called her brother the “life and soul of every celebration” with a “charming personality”.

She said: “We are the ones that are serving the life sentence. We are the ones doing the time. When they killed Shami that day, they killed every chance of us being a happy family again. They stole our Shami from us.

We are a close family, and this tragedy has kept us together. But it also comes with immeasurable pain and isolation.”

Mr Ghafoor was found by a milkman at 4.30am at Lambley Lane Playing Fields in Gedling, Nottinghamshire, with his hands tied and bound to the steering wheel, police said.

The last known sighting of the victim was at 2.40am in Carlton Square, where he was seen with three Asian men in his black-and-white Ford Sierra.

Mr Ghafoor was a father to a five-year-old son and was killed five months before the birth of his daughter.