Faith healer grilled in Zainab case commits suicide

E-Paper | June 24, 2026

KASUR: A faith healer, who had been grilled in connection with the Zainab case, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room under mysterious circumstances on Monday at Peerowala Road in Saddar police precincts.

Devotees of Baba Shabir alias Chanee Pir found him hanging from the ceiling fan of his room. Receiving information, police reached the spot and shifted the body to DHQ hospital for autopsy. Police are looking into the matter.

According to family, police had arrested Shabir in connection with the Zainab case some two weeks back. His nephew Muhammad Umer said Shabir went into depression after police released him after 10 days of interrogation and DNA profiling. He said Shabir did ablution (wazu) and “I thought he is going for worship as usual.”

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2018

Our readers are at the heart of everything we do.
Do you have a thought to share or a way we can improve? We’d love to hear it. Reach out to us at feedback@dawn.com.

Justice for Zainab

Pakistan

Civil courts cannot decide citizenship disputes, rules LHC

Man, brothers booked for his wife’s ‘murder’ in Okara

Construction delays causing difficulties for Multan’s Nishtar Hospital visitors

Ahmed

Jan 30, 2018 07:50am

Safety of all accused including Imran will be challenging for Punjab police now.

Recommend 0

Mehdi

Jan 30, 2018 07:55am

I smell conspiracy here

Recommend 0

Peterson

Jan 30, 2018 08:01am

Is this Imran the real culprit? Or this is just another cover up.

Recommend 0

chacha

Jan 30, 2018 08:03am

and the plot thickens...

Recommend 0

Syed Ahmed

Jan 30, 2018 08:04am

There is more to it than meets the eye. Switching off Zainab's father's mike will not silence the truth. Those killed and silenced will speak.

Recommend 0

Anti-corruption

Jan 30, 2018 08:14am

Something fishy here

Recommend 0

Hasnain

Jan 30, 2018 08:17am

@Mehdi ...please do away with conspiracy theories and focus on facts.

Recommend 0

Amin

Jan 30, 2018 08:17am

There is definitely more than what meets the eye.

Recommend 0

SomethingFishy

Jan 30, 2018 08:29am

was not it expected? they burn all record of their bad deeds. it is Punjab government.

Recommend 0

Rizwan

Jan 30, 2018 08:47am

Need more investigation to find out if this guy was also involved in the crime.

Recommend 0

Salim Khan

Jan 30, 2018 08:50am

This is the start of events which will destroy the efforts to get to the bottom of what happened to Zainab. This is exactly what Dr. Shahid Masood advocating. Everybody is against Shahid Masood, but no body has ever followed up on what happened in the past. Criminals are free to do whatever they want, the ex prime minister is out there pounding the Supreme Court, and the PPP has taken Sindh and Sindhis as their slaves. I have no idea what is going on. I hope things come around and we vote people who are true Pakistanis.

Recommend 0

asuf

Jan 30, 2018 08:50am

I don't work for police but even I knew this was going to happen. They are going to kill each individual who is some how linked to the case.

Recommend 0

Abdullah

Jan 30, 2018 09:14am

In every suicide there is a murderer behind it.

Recommend 0

Tariq

Jan 30, 2018 09:20am

Although this is terrible but one should not take this apparent suicide as for granted.

Recommend 0

Sajid

Jan 30, 2018 09:37am

there is something big..claims of Shahid Masood seem to be true.

Recommend 0

Zahid

Jan 30, 2018 09:45am

PTI supporters really want every conspiracy theory to come true. The accused was caught so pls stop playing politics with this tragedy.

Recommend 0

Patriotic

Jan 30, 2018 09:52am

I think Dr. Shahid Masood is right, The Zainab death case should be investigated to find the facts.

Recommend 0

Ali

Jan 30, 2018 09:56am

Dr. Shahid Masood's claims are true. He just lacks concrete evidence. But his information directs towards this racket.

Recommend 0

asad

Jan 30, 2018 10:03am

It means Shahid Masood was right, the case is not so simple

Recommend 0

butterfly

Jan 30, 2018 10:13am

Maybe Zainab incident bought back old memories of a similar crime where this peer could either have been the victim or the culprit himself. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction!

Recommend 0

Riz Ahmed

Jan 30, 2018 10:21am

This is again is the fault of Dr. Shahid Masood...that this happened...it is a conspiracy against the media and punjab government by SM.

Recommend 0

Love Your Country

Jan 30, 2018 10:21am

Faith healer in depression? Performed ablution (wazu) and took his life?

Recommend 0

Yawar

Jan 30, 2018 10:27am

This was expected. I just hope we dont see any more mysterious deaths associated with this case.

Recommend 0

Yawar

Jan 30, 2018 10:29am

Now I am beginning to beleive Dr Shahid Masood

Recommend 0

Naqash Qureshi

Jan 30, 2018 10:58am

Its prove that he was indirectly connected with zainab case.

Recommend 0

Azam

Jan 30, 2018 10:58am

Seems like a cover up. Someone is trying to clean some evidence.

Recommend 0

on FLIP SIDE

Jan 30, 2018 11:12am

truth is stranger than fiction....Punjab Police on trial here...

Recommend 0

Javed Arshad

Jan 30, 2018 11:14am

Hopefully the new JIT will get to the truth.

Recommend 0

Fazza

Jan 30, 2018 11:22am

Dr Shahid Masood was right to claim in his show that their is a big ring of wrong doers backed by some powerful personalties involved in this porn film business.

Recommend 0

Omair

Jan 30, 2018 11:46am

People who Fed the information to shahid Masood don't rest until the objective is achieved.

Recommend 0

Leo

Jan 30, 2018 12:06pm

@Peterson you said it..

Recommend 0

syed wasim haider

Jan 30, 2018 12:20pm

It seems that Dr.Masud theories are correct.

Recommend 0

Zaidi

Jan 30, 2018 12:55pm

@syed wasim haider yes they are

Recommend 0

bai_jan

Jan 30, 2018 12:56pm

In my humble opinion the blame goes to media, in their appetite for sensationism and commercial rating inflict investigations, and the result is obvious mental trauma plus innocent civilians get hurt in due process.

Recommend 0

Asif Bhatti

Jan 30, 2018 01:01pm

@Salim Khan Nobody is against Shahid Masood. If he says on a national TV programme that the rapist has 37 foreign bank accounts then he has to give evidence for his claim. Otherwise he looses all the credibility and SC must punish him for airing misinformation on TV.

Recommend 0

Karachi

Jan 30, 2018 01:57pm

As per news, he was the one among hundreds those were arrested by Police for DNA profiling on the basis of doubt. Can't handle the blame, mental pressure and insult; and did suicide. It's a collateral damage.

Recommend 0

tauseef

Jan 30, 2018 02:26pm

Its looks like something fish;y was going on in Kasur which is hiding from public eye.

Recommend 0

imran

Jan 30, 2018 03:28pm

This will all point to a a gang or ring in my opinion, more involved.

Recommend 0

ahmad

Jan 30, 2018 04:31pm

@asuf totally agrred

Recommend 0

Ayub

Jan 30, 2018 05:11pm

In other countries people earn thru innovation and hardwork and they progress but in our country our earning is thru corruption and easy money resulting poverty and criminal activities.

Recommend 0

Moth

Jan 30, 2018 06:20pm

@butterfly your argument makes a lot of sense!

Recommend 0

Alba

Jan 30, 2018 06:22pm

All these faith healers are in need of psychiatric help.

Recommend 0

Talha

Jan 30, 2018 07:50pm

This gives a lot of weight to Shahid Masood's claims. Any way how can Shahid Masood be criticized when both the JITs have yet to investigate and come up with a final report. Why did a select group of media and politicians push propaganda against him when the JITs have yet to come to a conclusion. He should be criticized only if both the JITs prove that his information about the involvement of an international ring had no merit. The death of this pir needs to be part of the JIT made by Supreme Court.

Recommend 0

El Cid

Jan 31, 2018 08:32am

An innocent heart suffers the most.

Recommend 0

Siraj Khan

Jan 31, 2018 10:46am

Everybody is guilty until proven innocent.......child sex, rape and tape involves a big ring, fully insulated and protected by the Punjab Govt. It is almost a tourist attraction as people from other cities find Kasur as the magnet. The worst thing is that in many parents cases it is with parental consent. They are actually proud that their children are helping in the household income in this manner. And yet as that old song said.......'everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die'

Recommend 0

Sultan

Feb 01, 2018 12:32am

Powerful eliminating the less powerful! How long this cycle of protection will go on!

Recommend 0

Syed Anjum Ali

Feb 01, 2018 12:58am

These fake pirs and such are among the biggest criminals, propagating all manners of evils in society. There must be a system to regulate and control various authentic spiritual training systems in Pakistan, and to ban and penalize fakesters.

Recommend 0

danish ali

Feb 01, 2018 10:44am

Authorities should take serious, the revelations made by Dr. Shahid Masood. How can a man take his own life only for being grilled?

Recommend 0

Branded Content

Alif Holdings hosts Real Estate CEOs Conference with Bilal Yaseen live podcast by Mansoor Ali Khan

Topics expected to be discussed include housing policy, urban development, investment confidence, infrastructure planning and the future outlook of Pakistan’s real estate industry.