KOHAT: As the prime suspect in the murder case of a 30-year-old woman NGO worker has still been absconding, the local police have arrested five of his family members.

Police said that they were conducting raids for arrest of the main suspect in the case, Mehboob Alam, paternal cousin of the victim. The incident took place in the jurisdiction of Ustarzai police station here on Feb 6. Alam had allegedly killed his cousin for doing job with an NGO.

District police officer Javed Iqbal, who visited the house of the victim’s family, on Friday assured it of protection and all legal help. He also offered ‘fateha’ for the departed soul.

He said that the incident was being investigated and intelligence-based raids were being made for early arrest of the main suspect. He asked DSP Abdur Rasheed to make special arrangements for safety of the bereaved family.

Talking to media persons at Ustarzai, the DPO said that the police had held the prime suspect’s father, Shah Alam, his brother Hamad Ali, and cousins Moazzam Ali, Mosum Ali and Zulfiqar Ali.

Zohra Bibi, elder sister of the deceased, said that her sister was killed in the name of honour and demanded immediate arrest of Alam. She termed the arrest of other persons an eyewash.

Talking to this correspondent, she said that in the prevailing culture where working women were considered a stigma for the family the government should patronise them. She said that though her well-educated sister could not come back, the killer should be arrested and hanged in public.

She said that the victim was the only breadwinner of the family and was also taking care of the children of her younger sister, who was expelled from home after the death of their brother-in-law.

The complainant Farheen, younger sister of the deceased, in a sobbed voice regretted that despite her repeated appeals the police was reluctant to register the case of honour killing and adamant to term it a family feud.

She stated that her sister was being pressurised by her cousin to leave the NGO job which she was doing due to circumstances of her family.

Meanwhile, the National Commission on the Status of Women has condemned the incident. In a statement, the commission’s chairperson, Khawar Mumtaz, urged the provincial government to ensure that the culprit was immediately arrested and duly punished under the newly-enacted “Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offences in the name or pretext of Honour) Act, 2016.

LIQUOR SEIZED: The police busted a liquor factory and arrested its alleged owner here on Friday.

The Riaz Shaheed police raided a house in Merozai and seized 100 liters of liquor, 87 bottles and other items. Police have secured physical remand of the suspects, Sultan Ali and Saghir Saeed, in the case.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2017