QUETTA: Balochistan’s former chief minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri has said he is not involved in the murder of Nawab Amanullah Khan Zarakzai and his grandson.

Nawab Zarakzai was killed along with his grandson and two other people on Saturday.

Speaking at a press conference in his native town of Anjira on Wednesday evening, the chief of Jhalawan said that although the late Zarakzai was nominated in the FIR of his sons’ murder neither he nor any member of his family was involved in his murder.

Earlier this week, the late tribal elder’s wife had nominated 10 people in the FIR registered with Levies’ Zehri post. The people nominated in the FIR include Nawab Zehri, his brother MPA Naimatullah Zehri and special assistant to the former chief minister Agha Shekeel Ahmed, who is also a close relative of Mr Zehri.

The case has been registered under Sections 302, 109, 143, 145, 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Former chief minister says a nationalist party is hatching conspiracy to create mayhem in Jhalawan

Mr Zehri announced plans to convene a jirga of elders of Jhalawan and Sarawan to expose the conspiracy hatched against him and his tribe by involving them in Nawab Zarakzai’s murder.

Without naming names, Nawab Zehri said that a nationalist party was hatching the conspiracy to create mayhem in Jhalawan.

“Akhtar Shahezai has crossed all limits, but his vicious ambitions against the Zehri tribe could cause bloodshed in Balochistan.”

The former chief minister said if Akhtar Shahezai did not play his role in appeasing tribal disputes in Jhalawan then he should not fuel tension among Zehri tribes.

He said he had immense respect for the Mengal tribe, but the Shahezai family remained involved in hatching conspiracies against the Zarakzai family.

“When I was the chief minister I did not attack my uncle Amanullah Zarakzai, so why should I do this now when my tribe and I have no power,” he questioned.

Nawab Zehri said the people of Balochistan knew that slain Amanullah Zarakzai was nominated in the murder of his sons, but “being senior provincial minister and then chief minister I didn’t use my influence in the proceedings of an anti-terrorist court”.

In reply to a question, he said without conducting any investigation the FIR had been lodged against him and his family, but “I want to tell Chief Minister Jam Kamal that still we are ready to face courts because without proof no one should point out fingers at my family”.

A large number of elders of the Zehri tribe were present at the press conference.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2019