Khanewal killing: Inquiry team to exhume corpse today | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Khanewal killing: Inquiry team to exhume corpse today

KHANEWAL: The inquiry committee probing the murder of a woman in a village in Khanewal will on Friday exhume her corpse for an autopsy, Sheikhupura regional police officer Zulfiqar Cheema told The Express Tribune on Thursday.

He said officials from Lahore would arrive in Katcha Khoo village with forensics equipment on Friday morning (today) to dig up the grave for an autopsy.

The RPO, in charge of the case’s investigation, said a request in this regard had been granted by a judicial magistrate on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Sarfaraz Ahmed, husband of deceased Maryam Bibi, admitted to having killed her following an argument on July 18. He was recording a statement before Magistrate Rahman Elahi.

Ahmed said he had strangled her and then hit the body with bricks before dumping it in a field near his house. He said the argument had started when he learnt that the deceased was negotiating a settlement with a rival family without his knowledge. Ahmed said he had an irrigation dispute with the Raja family.

Ahmed was arrested on July 20, two days after the murder of Maryam Bibi. Two members of the Raja family, Raja Sarfaraz and Raja Nana, are also under arrest at the Katcha Khoo police station for the woman’s murder.

They were identified as suspects in an FIR registered in the matter by Ahmed’s father. The FIR had alleged that the killing of the woman was ordered by a jirga.

It had accused men of the Raja family of having arranged the jirga.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan had taken sou motu notice of the killing. Khanewal DPO Waqar Abbasi has been made an officer on special duty, Multan regional police officer directed to report to the Civil Lines in Lahore and SP (Investigation) Naeemul Hassan Babbar, Saddar DSP Javed Khan and Katcha Khoo Station House Officer Shamshad Dilshad suspended from services on directives of the SC over their negligence in the matter.


The Express Tribune