KHAIRPUR: The suspects arrested in the infamous Ramsha Wassan murder case were on Satur­day produced in the Khairpur Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) upon expiry of their physical remand.

The prime suspect, Zulfiqar Wassan aka Zulfoo along with his associates nominated in the case, Ghaffar Wassan and Sabir Wassan, were produced in the ATC amid stringent security as Zulfoo appeared to have alleged political clout and scores of cases of heinous crime registered against him over the last many years.

The Khairpur police also produced the crime weapon, a TT pistol allegedly used in Ramsha’s murder, and informed the court that it was used by Sabir Wassan and seized from him during investigation of the case.

The court acceded to the police’s request for an extension of the three suspects’ remand for three days for further interrogation.

Ramsha, 13, was shot dead on Feb 3 and her mother alleged that Zulfoo and his associates killed her after she had chosen to marry one of her cousins against the will of an influential person of the area. The mother claimed that her daughter was first kidnapped and a few days after she was recovered, the suspect stormed into their house and gunned her down.

During the investigation, the police arrested the cook of a feudal lord, MNA Nawab Wassan, who had allegedly been in constant touch with Zulfoo before Ramsha was murdered. According to preliminary investigation, Zulfoo is a nephew of Nawab Wassan.

WAF demands proper probe into women’s suicides, accidental deaths

Our staff correspondent at Hyderabad adds: The Women Action Forum (WAF) on Saturday condemned increasing incidents of violence against women in the country and demanded steps to protect women.

In a statement, the forum reminded the state of its responsibility of protecting the life and property of its citizens.

It noted that in most cases, such incidents were declared ‘accidental’ and police avoided conducting an investigation into them. Likewise, incidents of alleged suicide had also registered an increase and only recently a nurse in Mirpurkhas was reported to have committed suicide. When heirs of the nurse were approached by the WAF, they expressed a lack of trust in the legal proceedings of the case but no action was seen in the matter.

WAF stated that in the current week, a nine-year-old girl from the Oad community had allegedly committed suicide but her parents did not allow her post-mortem examination to be performed. The forum said that independent sources had claimed that her post-mortem was performed but its report was not released.

It emphasised the need for registering such cases on behalf of the state or conducting a complete police investigation because such incidents of alleged suicides and accidental deaths had registered an upsurge when compared with killing of women in the name of honour.

The WAF also said that not only the state take should take notice of the upsurge but the institutions like National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) should also take steps to check the trend.

The statement demanded that a post-mortem examination be made mandatory in cases of women’s accidental deaths. It regretted that a serious investigation was not seen in the mysterious death of seven persons of a family in Tandojam earlier this month.

It noted that the death of a student from Karachi was also declared an accident or suicide.

The forum appreciated the decision of exhumation of her body under judicial order and called for implementation of this order. It noted that parents in the case used political influence to stop an investigation into the death amidst reports that she was killed after being sexually assaulted.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2019