March 2, 2003	Sunday	Zul Hijjah 28, 1423

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MULTAN, March 1: A Shujabad tehsil court cancelled the interim bail of two of the four accused in Mariam’s ‘murder’ case on Friday and sent them on a 14-day judicial remand.

Complainant Khadim Husain, brother of Mariam, had accused Ghulam Farid, his sister Razia and a relative Mohammad Ajmal of kidnap, criminal assault and murder in the FIR lodged with Shujabad city police on Dec 18. Later, he also nominated Faiz Rind in the FIR for patronising the accused.

Razia and Ajmal had secured interim bail while the other two accused remained at large. The prime minister and the Punjab chief minister reportedly sought reports from Multan police directing them to arrest the remaining accused immediately.

According to the information gleaned by this correspondent through various sources, Mariam’s elder sister, whose name could not be ascertained, was married in Alipur Tehsil of the Muzaffargarh district sometime back, but after her husband’s death, she again started living with her father Farooq in Shujabad.

One of her late husband’s cousins, Ghulam Farid (18), first started paying visits to her and then took up residence in Shujabad after starting a business there, besides carrying on his studies as a private student of intermediate.

In the meantime, Mariam’s father started looking around for a match for her. Her family stated her age as 11, but people of the area said that she was in her teens. On December 18, relatives gathered at her house to marry her off to one Maki.

However, the family was surprised when it found that both Ghulam Farid and Mariam were missing. Subsequently, an FIR was registered with the city police against Mr Farid, his sister Razia and a relative Ajmal for kidnapping the ‘11-year-old’ girl.

Mr Farid’s family initiated ‘negotiations’ with Mariam’s father Farooq to settle the matter.

When contacted, Mariam’s father, Farooq, said his son and complainant of the case had attended the panchayats held for the purpose, which he was not able to attend himself.

He said it was decided in the panchayats that two sisters of Ghulam Farid would be married to brothers of Mariam in return for the withdrawal of the FIR while Mariam would be free to decide whether she wanted to live with Farid or not.

Farooq told Dawn that his son Qasim was married to Farid’s sister Shado in Alipur. As for Farid’s other sister who was five years old, Farooq was assured that her Nikah would be solemnized with another of his sons on cancellation of the FIR.

In the meantime, Farid phoned Mariam’s family in the first week of February and told them that she was at Jinnah hospital of Karachi after contracting hepatitis. Her mother Sakina, who worked as a labourer in a factory in Karachi, was also with her in the hospital, the family was told.

Khadim and other relatives rushed to Karachi where Mariam was lying on Bed No 50 of Ward No 4 of the Jinnah Hospital. Additional SHO (Shujabad city) Sub-Inspector Javed also reached the hospital. Ghulam Farid, however, fled away from the hospital.

Maryam died in the hospital on Feb 20 and her body was brought to Shujabad the next day. When the police refused to order a post mortem of the body, Mariam’s family got it ordered by the additional district and sessions judge of the area. Dr Asma Rasheed of the Shujabad Rural Health Centre performed the post mortem and sent samples to the chemical examiner, whose report is being awaited.

Her family alleged that the police were favouring the accused and sent applications to various government authorities for redressal of their woes.

The local police authorities suspended Shujabad city SHO Inspector Rizwan for delaying the post mortem and Sub-Inspector Javed for failing to record Mariam’s statement despite his visit to Karachi.