MULTAN: A local court on Thursday indicted five suspects in Qandeel Baloch’s murder case.

Among those indicted are her two brothers and cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Sardar Iqbal Dogar read out the charge sheet to the suspects after he resumed the hearing of the case. The suspects, however, pleaded not guilty.

Mufti Abdul Qavi, Qandeel’s brothers Muhammad Wasim and Aslam Shaheen, Abdul Basit (a cab driver) and Haq Nawaz (cousin) were indicted and the court fixed May 14 the next date of hearing.

On July 15, 2016, Qandeel Baloch was strangled to death by her brother Waseem and cousin Haq Nawaz in the name of ‘honour’. Waseem was arrested by police in Dera Ghazi Khan later that night and he confessed to killing her sister at a press conference.

Qavi was arrested on Oct 18, 2017 after a court rejected an extension to his pre-arrest bail. Police declared Qavi a suspect in the case on the request of Muhammad Azeem, the father of Qandeel Baloch.

Azeem alleged that his daughter was killed on Mufti Qavi’s orders and that the cleric had offered him money to drop charges against him.

Qavi was granted bail in November 2017 on a surety bond of Rs200,000.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2018