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| December 6, 2003 | Saturday | Shawwal 11, 1424 |
Police role in Afsheen case ‘pitiable’
MULTAN, Dec 5: The local police have not even been able to determine how many relatives of Afsheen Musarrat are involved in her murder despite the fact that none other than the president of Pakistan took notice of the incident 14 days ago.
The only accused in police custody is the girl’s father, Advocate Musarrat Hussain Sahu, who surrendered to police on Eidul Fitr, after a medical board examined the body of Afsheen after exhumation and declared that she had been strangled.
Afsheen died on Nov 10 at her father’s house in Gulshan-i-Mehar, Multan. Her family buried her the next day at their ancestral village Marri Sahu in Kabirwala tehsil of Khanewal district, some 50km from here, declaring her death as natural. However, Human Rights Commission Of Pakistan’s Multan Task Force coordinator Advocate Rashid Rehman filed an application with the Gulgasht police drawing their attention to the mysterious circumstances of Afsheen’s death and expressed fear that she might have been killed for the sake of honour.
A computer science graduate, Afsheen was married to her paternal cousin Nauman, a Pakistan Air Force pilot, on Sept 12, allegedly against her will because she wanted to marry her maternal cousin and classfellow Hassan Mustafa. Rumours are rife that Afsheen and Hassan had solemnized a secret Nikah before her “forced” marriage with Nauman. On Nov 1, Afsheen eloped with Hassan and took refuge in Rawalpindi with a family acquaintance. However, her father and other male family members managed to bring her back on Nov 8 and two days later she was reported dead.
The Multan police initially did not give the matter much importance and according to an HRCP report they rather discouraged the human rights activists from pursuing the matter, arguing that under the Qisas and Diyat laws action was not possible in such cases without the consent of heirs. However, the police finally took up the matter when President Gen Pervez Musharraf ordered a thorough inquiry into the mysterious death of Ms Musarrat on Nov 20.
Initial reports suggested that Afsheen’s father Musarrat Sahu, grandfather Allah Ditta Sahu and some other close male relatives had murdered her in the name of honour. Sources in the police department said that initially some political bigwigs from Khanewal and Multan areas had guaranteed that they would hand over all the wanted men of Sahu clan to police and that the police need not raid their houses. The police confidence in the guarantors got a boost when a tehsil Nazim belonging to Khanewal brought Musarrat Sahu to the police.
The sources said however that all the concerned Sahu men went into hiding after Eid and now the police were uselessly raiding their houses while the guarantors were also not inclined to cooperate with them. It may be added here that Allah Ditta Sahu has secured a bail from the Lahore High Court up to Dec 9.
“The Multan police authorities are now repenting what should be called their folly to trust the people who hold important offices in the federal and local governments but also have deep-rooted electoral bonds with the Sahus of Kabirwala,” said a police source involved in the investigations of Afsheen case.
Punjab chief minister’s advisor on law and human rights, Rana Ijaz Ahmed Khan, was in Multan on Thursday to monitor the pace of investigations. He held a meeting with local police authorities, senior lawyers and human rights activists at the office of Multan District Nazim Riaz Hussain Qureshi who was also present.
Sources in the meeting told Dawn that police officials were embarrassed over the betrayal by political bigwigs and one of them even alleged that Allah Ditta Sahu had taken refuge with a very influential person in Islamabad prior to his protective bail.
The police officials reportedly disclosed in the meeting that the army authorities at the Multan corps headquarter had to transfer a colonel belonging to the Sahu clan from Multan when a complaint was lodged that he was exerting pressure on the investigators of Afsheen case. It was reportedly decided in the meeting that police would now interrogate all the persons who were living in the house where Afsheen was murdered in order to find out how many people were involved in the crime.
Later, addressing a press conference, the CM’s advisor announced that chargesheet of the case would be submitted to the court within 15 days and the case would be heard on a day-to-day basis. He said it had become clear after the postmortem report that Afsheen was murdered and that too by more than one person. He said the government would handle the case in a manner similar to that adopted in the notorious Mukhtaran Mai gangrape case last year.
He claimed that the Qisas and Diyat laws could not be implemented in this case because heirs of the deceased were involved in the murder.
When contacted, HRCP’s Rashid Rehman claimed that the performance of police in Afsheen case had been rather pitiable and showed their insensitivity to even the worst of crimes against women. He said there seemed to be no planning and coordination among the law enforcement agencies for tracking down the accused. The Multan police could not justify their failure by saying that they were being pressurized by influential people, he added.
APP ADDS: A sessions judge directed the police to produce Musarrat Sahu in the court on Friday, acting on a petition for habeas corpus filed by Mr Sahu’s son Arsalan, but DSP (Investigations) Yar Muhammad appeared before the judge and said Mr Sahu was “not in police custody”. The DSP admitted that Musarrat was being interrogated and informed the court that he would visit the police investigation cell on Saturday. “We can produce him on Saturday if the court so orders.”
DSJ Malik Azharul Haq Awan then directed him to produce Musarrat Sahu in the court on Saturday. The petitioner, Mr Arsalan, had contended that neither his father’s arrest had been recorded so far nor was he produced before a magistrate.
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