09 June 2004	Wednesday	20 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, June 8: The Supreme Court on Monday asked a trial court to decide within three months the case of murder of Ambreen Mustafa, a student abducted from Sheikhupura in September 2002.

The murder was a proof of negligence on the part of police, observed a three-member SC bench, comprising Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, seized with a suo motu matter on the abduction of the girl.

The bench directed the Sheikhupura sessions court to submit to the Supreme Court registrar the copy of his findings about the murder after holding the trial on day-to-day basis.

The observation came in response to a police report submitted before the court suggesting that the girl had allegedly been killed by one Tahir Sarwar alias Shahab with co-accused Usman and Saifur Rehman. The report claimed she had developed relations with Tahir Sarwar.

"We are not disposing of the matter and will take it up again in the first week of October after receiving the decision of the trial court," the bench observed. The SC asked senior police officials present before it to sign the report presented to the court and warned of strict action if the real culprits managed to escape justice.

Earlier, the court while taking serious notice of police's failure to recover the girl had extended its deadline set for her recovery and production of those involved in her abduction.

Deputy inspector-general police, Lahore, Tariq Saleem Dogar; DIG Sheikhupura, Syed Saqlain Naqvi; DIG crimes branch, Punjab, Chaudhry Majeed; and Sheikhupura District Police Officer Chaudhry Mohammad Nawaz Warraich appeared before the court.

Punjab Advocate-General Shabbar Raza Rizvi later told Dawn that the girl, according to the confessional statements, was poisoned to death in a vacant house in Sheikhupura.

Tahir Sarwar, who had fled to Dubai but came back on his parents' insistence in May 2004 and was arrested, had confessed during interrogation that he had killed the girl because she had threatened to disclose about their relationship to his family if he failed to marry her.

The accused consulted his friend Saifur Rehman and the two convinced the girl that he was ready to marry her and that she should break the news to her family, which she did on September 9, 2002, saying that she had married Saleem (Tahir Sarwar) and that she would leave for abroad, he said.

They booked a room in City Hotel, Sheikhupura, and later shifted to a vacant house where she was poisoned. Her body was dropped in the Qadirabad Link Canal. Police had also recovered the jewellry she was wearing at the time of her murder, the AG said.

Tahir Sarwar managed to hide his identity and get released from police custody earlier because his involvement could not be established then as he had also volunteered in the girl's search by misguiding both police and the victim's family.

The girl's father Mohammad Mustafa had registered an FIR on Sept 11, 2002, under Section 11 of Hudood Ordinance at the A division police station in Sheikhupura, accusing Khalil Ahmed, son of Siraj Ahmad, and one Saleem (real name Tahir Sarwar) of kidnapping his daughter.

The complainant later filed an application before the Supreme Court on Nov 25, 2002, alleging that Saleem, the real name of whom was Babar advocate (again Tahir Sarwar) had abducted his daughter.