MULTAN City News

Qandeel’s three brothers involved in her murder: police

From Nadeem Shah

MULTAN: Police investigation has established that three brothers were involved in the murder of their sister Qandeel Baloch for honour.

The accused are Muhammad Wasim, Aslam Shaheen and Muhammad Arif. Muhammad Arif has been living in Saudi Arabia for a long time and Aslam Shaheen is a soldier while only Wasim is in police custody.

Police investigation has also established that accused Wasim and his cousin Haq Nawaz had strangled Qandeel Baloch. Police are reviewing the polygraph test report of taxi driver Abdul Basit in which he confessed his relationship with Mufti Qavi. Police said that the polygraph test report showed that accused Abdul Basit knew the murder plan.

The investigators revealed that Basit had allegedly driven accused Wasim and Haq Nawaz to Multan from Qandeel’s ancestral Shah Sadr Din village, Dera Ghazi Khan, on July 15 and dropped them to Dera Ghazi Khan after the murder on July 16. They said that Basit had handed himself over to police on July 27 in Multan. Qandeel’s father and complainant Muhammad Azam had already nominated accused Abdul Basit in the murder case.

The Regional Police Office Legal Branch sources told The News that recommendations made by the RPO Legal Branch were ignored in registering the murder case.

A senior legal official at the RPO Office on condition of anonymity said that the RPO Legal Branch had held meeting soon after the murder and recommended that the Muzaffarabad SHO should be made complainant into the case instead of relying on Qandeel’s father Muhammad Azam to avoid possible reconciliation.

The source said that the Legal Branch and the Multan District Attorney held a meeting and recommended incorporation of Section 305 of the PPC along with Section 311 of the PPC to ensure state as a complainant. However, Legal Branch’s all recommendations were set aside and Qandeel’s father Muhammad Azam made complainant, the source added. The RPO Legal Branch officials feared complainant Muhammad Azam might pardon the accused under the Qisas Law. The sources said that the incomplete challan of the case was expected to be submit in the next couple of days.

When contacted, Mufti Qavi completely denied any relationship with accused Abdul Basit. He claimed that the police did not contact him since he had submitted his written reply. He, however, assured the police of cooperating with them in the case.

On Monday, Judicial Magistrate Qamar Zaman Tarrar sent two accused - taxi driver Abdul Basit and Muhammad Zafar - to the jail on completion of 14-day physical remand. Two more accused – Wasim and Zafar – were already in the jail on judicial remand.