KOHAT: The murder case of a woman NGO worker here took a new turn on Saturday when the prime suspect who had been directly nominated in the case and absconding appeared on social media and claimed his innocence.

In his statement, the suspect, Mehboob Alam, claimed that he had not killed his cousin, but the real culprit was somebody else. He also said in the video message that there were several other female members of his family doing jobs, adding that his own sister was a schoolteacher.

He claimed that the victim’s family had tried to trap him for protecting the real murderer. The NGO worker was killed by unknown assailants on Feb 6.

Prime suspect appear on social media to claim his innocence

When contacted, Ustarzai police station SHO, Nazir, in whose jurisdiction the incident occurred, told this correspondent that a delegation of the relatives of Alam had come to his office a few days ago and expressed a similar view. He quoted the delegation members as saying that they were ready to produce Alam to clear his position and record statement, but the police would not arrest him.

However, the police told them that Alam had been directly nominated by the victim’s sister in the FIR who claimed to be an eyewitness and as such they could not provide any relief to him legally. The prime suspect was advised that whatever proofs he had about his innocence he should produce them in the court of law.

Police PRO Fazal Kareem said that they could not help the suspect unless he surrendered.

Published in Dawn February 13th, 2017