07 January 2004	Wednesday	14 Ziqa'ad 1424

MULTAN, Jan 6: Five of the accused in the Afsheen Mussart murder case were sent on a 14-day judicial remand by a local civil court on Tuesday on the completion of their physical remand in police custody.

The accused remanded in judicial custody are Afsheen's grandfather Allah Ditta Sahu, brother Arslan Mussart, Fazeel Raza, Hammad Karamat and Taufeeq Ahmed. The accused remained under police interrogation for 14 days from Dec 23 last.

Civil judge/judicial magistrate Ali Raza Awan directed the police to produce the five accused before the court again on Jan 19. The police reportedly also filed an application with the court to discharge Arslan Mussart from the case because he was found 'innocent' in the interrogation. The court, however, sought record that proved him 'not guilty'.

Afsheen's father advocate Mussart Hussain Sahu and maternal Uncle Naveed Akhtar Sahu have already been on judicial remand prior to the completion of the challan of the case to be presented before the relevant court for regular trial.

Meawhwile, office of the district police officer issued a press note about outcome of the police interrogation.

It says: Afsheen, a computer science graduate from Bahaudin Zakariya University, was strangled on Nov 12 last for the sake of 'honour' by her father Mussart and his cousin Fazeel Raza, a former Multan Press Club general secretary, on the orders of her grandfather Allah Ditta while Fazeel's nephew Hammad, in Gulshan-i-Mehr Colony of the Gulgasht police station area, stood guard.

The police press note further claims that Mussart Sahu had arranged an Iftar dinner at his house a day before the murder where he, Fazeel and two of his (Mussart's) lawyer friends, Mazhar Dhrala and Naseer Thaheem, sealed Afsheen's fate.

It may be recalled here that Afsheen, 22, was married to her paternal cousin Nouman Azhar, a PAF pilot, on Sept 13 last against her will as reportedly she wanted to marry her maternal cousin Hasan Mustafa.

She later on eloped with Hasan on Nov 1 last and the duo took refuge with an acquaintance in Islamabad. However, soon they were apprehended by their families and she was brought back to Multan on Nov 6 under some undisclosed, so far, circumstances by her father and three of his relatives, including an army personnel. Three days after she was pronounced dead and buried immediately.

Multan task force coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, advocate Rashid Rehman filed an application on Nov 14 and feared that Afsheen might have been killed in the name of honour. After initial lukewarm response to the HRCP application, the local police took the matter seriously when not other than the president of Pakistan took note of the incident. Her postmortem conducted after exhumation of her body confirmed that she was murdered and that she also posed resistance to her murderers.

Initially, the police authorities said that the case had been registered under sections 302, 364 and 201 PPC. The section 364 was incorporated in the FIR for 'kidnapping her from Rawalpindi with the intention of murder' because she had feared her murder and, therefore, had refused to return to Multan on Nov 7 when elders of the Sahu clan had gathered at the residence of the acquaintance with whom she and Hasan had taken refuge after elopement.

Sahu family sources said on this occasion, it was decided that Afsheen would stay in Rawalpindi with a close relative who was said to be an army officer until divorce from Nouman became effective. She reportedly even had pleaded that she be lodged at Darulaman. But, the police press note is silent on this important piece of the chain of events that led to her cold-blooded murder.

Commenting on the press note, advocate Rashid Rehman said the people who betrayed her and handed her over to her 'blood thirsty' family had also a role in the murder because the circumstances suggested that they were well aware of her fate. "They, along with the people whoever tried to influence the investigation of the case, should be taken to task.