‘Mazari killed without any reason by his abnormal son’

MULTAN: The Mazari family of Omar Kot says Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s ex-MPA Sardar Atif Mazari was killed without any reason by his abnormal son.

Mazari had been shot dead in his hometown Omar Kot in the Rajanpur district on Wednesday night. Mazari’s son Rehan Khan Mazari has lodged his father's murder complaint with the Omar Kot Police, stating that his real brother Abdul Basit Khan Mazari is insane and shot his father dead with Kalashnikov when he and Sardar Khizar Khan Mazari and Khalil Khan Mazari were taking dinner with his father. The Omar Kot police have registered FIR No 179/2020 and started investigations after handing over the body to the Mazari family for burial, police said. Senior lawyer and criminologist Syed Irfan Haider Shamsi has a professional opinion that the FIR has left doubts and its contents narrate unsatisfactory circumstances. The reasons for murder are prime facts to establish circumstances for murder, he said. The FIR is too weak and lacks solid reasons that forced the killer to kill his target. Moreover, it is very surprising to note that not a single person from the family or any servant could make efforts to disarm an abnormal person when he passed through the house and finally killed his father. The FIR story is unbelievable, he said.

Shamsi analyzed the situation and said the accused, Abdul Basit Mazari nominated in the FIR, did not hurt the rest of three persons accompanying the deceased, which was an act of surprise. The FIR says the accused is insane, but the circumstantial evidence say the accused was a matured sniper and targeted his father to kill without wasting a single bullet, he said. Any person can establish from the FIR that an insane allegedly performed the job of a sane man, he added. Shamsi was of the view that the accused may be acquitted on medical grounds as the legal heirs, the complainant and the accused are real brothers and they can pardon the accused. Political workers in Rajanpur were of the view that Sardar Atif Mazari had a very strong grip on all the administrative and tribal affairs including dealing with the Chhotu gang. His political career sprawls over not more than 12 years and he was elected member of Punjab Assembly twice on the PML-N ticket. He was a staunch follower of the PML-N. "Atif Mazari faced strong pressure to quit PML-N in the 2018 general elections, but he refused and contested the election on the PML-N ticket. Atif Mazari’s point of view was that it was a great disgrace to a Sardar to quit his companions in a tough time,” a close friend to Atif Mazari told The News on the condition of not mentioning him.

Incidents reported in newspapers say that Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar's Personal Secretary Information Jalal Khan Buzdar had visited Rajanpur on Tuesday last and held a meeting with PML-N senior leader Sardar Khizar Khan Mazari at Bangla Shokat Hussein Mazari for forty minutes. Sardar Atif Khan Mazari was not invited to the meeting. Rajanpur social worker Insaf Ali Mazari was present in the meeting. It is reported that Jalal Khan Buzdar greeted Sardar Khizar Khan Mazari on Eid and discussed resolution of local problems.

Talking to journalists, Jalal Khan Buzdar expressed his grief over massive destruction of crops caused by locust swarms. He said the Punjab government should take urgent measures to save farmers in the area. He reviewed locust destruction in dozens of small villages including Rojhan Kisan Board President Khalil Mazari's village. He talked on different issues, particularly relating to development of the area. Sardar Khizar Khan Mazari, who met Jalal Khan Buzdar, is a prime witness of Atif Mazari's murder in the FIR. The second witness is Khalil Khan Mazari. Political workers in Rajanpur say that Khizar Khan Mazari had engaged his sister to Abdul Basit Mazari but Atif Mazari disengaged the relationship a couple of days back. However, Khizar Mazari luckily remained safe in the firing. When contacted, the case investigator, ASI Zulfiqar Ali, said the accused has not been arrested yet. The complainant and the accused are real brothers and it will depend upon them how to carry on investigations.