SUKKUR: The preliminary investigation into Wednesday night’s murder of a newspaper hawker, Faiz Mohammed Jamali, along with his wife, in Jacobabad took a strange turn on Friday when close relatives of the victims revealed to the Saddar police that the murder was actually planned by the victim’s aunt.

Two armed men had barged into Jamali’s house late on Wednesday night and gunned down him and his wife, Umna Jamali. The area people were quoted as saying that before storming the house, the intruders warned them against intervening into the matter as it was “a matter of karo-kari” (extramarital affair). The attackers did not harm the couple’s four children, three sons and a daughter.

On Friday, police said they arrested Jamali’s uncle, Allah Rakhio, and his wife, Arbeli, late on Thursday evening after Jamali’s brother, Ali Nawaz, recorded his statement accusing the woman (Arbeli) of having conspired the whole episode.

Quoting the statement of Ali Nawaz, who is an ASI in the Railways Police and posted at Quetta, sources in the Jacobabad police said that Arbeli suspected that her husband, Allah Rakhio, had developed extramarital relations with Umna. The sources further quoted Nawaz as telling the police that Arbeli persuaded her paternal cousin, Silloo Jamali, to eliminate Faiz Jamali and Umna Jamali. She also offered a residential plot to Silloo if he executed the plot perfectly, Nawaz reportedly told the police, adding that Silloo, with the help of a friend, committed the double murder and went into hiding.

The official in charge of the Madadgar 15 police at Jacobabad, Tariq Tareen, confirmed arrest of Allah Rakhio and Arbeli for planning the double murder.

An FIR was, however, yet to be registered at the Saddar police station of Jacobabad.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2017