FORENSIC Tests are being carried out on a handgun found in a former policeman's garden on Orkney who was friends with a killer's father.
The weapon was found behind late former police sergeant John Miller's home in Kirkwall.
He is said to have been friends with Eddie Ross, whose son Michael was jailed for life with a minimum of 26 years for shooting dead Bangladeshi waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood in a restaurant in the town in 1994.
Mr Miller's widow Olive still lives at the house and is thought to have called police after the discovery was made while work was being carried out in the garden.
The murder weapon in the case was never found.
A Police Scotland spokesman said there was nothing to suggest it had been used in Mr Mahmood's murder, but that inquiries were continuing into its origin. These are understood to include a series of forensic tests.
Ross, a former Black Watch soldier, was 15 when he shot Mr Mahmood, 26, in full view of a room full of diners, including families with children.
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