Tahir Zahoor, the owner of Therapy Works — a counselling and psychotherapy service — has submitted an application with a district and sessions court in Islamabad, seeking the registration of a criminal case against Zahir Zakir Jaffer, the prime suspect in Noor Mukadam's murder case, for attacking and injuring a member of his team.

Therapy Works came under public scrutiny as the murder investigation unfolded and it was revealed that the primary suspect, Jaffer, was associated with it. Whether he was authorised to work as a therapist by the service has yet to be ascertained by investigators.

The capital administration had also sealed the office of Therapy Works in Islamabad.

In the latest development, the CEO of Therapy Works submitted an application through his lawyer, Shehzad Qureshi, asking the court to order the registration of a criminal case against Jaffer.

Zahoor explained in the petition that his medical team had visited Jaffer’s home on July 20, 2021, upon his father’s request who wanted his son to be admitted at the Therapy Works facility for rehabilitation.

He continued that as the team entered Jaffer’s room through the back door after not being able to get in from the front, “he attacked a team member with a knife, but other medical team members apprehended him.”

The petitioner said the medical team also spotted a young girl lying on the floor beheaded whom Jaffer had murdered.

In the petition, Zahoor said Kohsar Police didn’t listen to their version since the day the incident unfolded. He recalled that Jaffer had stabbed one of the Therapy Works employees, adding that an application was also submitted with the Kohsar Police Station but no action was taken against Jaffer.

On Wednesday, the sessions court sought a response from the police and adjourned the case hearing till Sep 7.

On Aug 23, the sessions court had granted bail to six officials of Therapy Works, including its owner and chief executive officer, in connection with the case.

Three days later, Noor Mukadam's father, Shaukat Mukadam, had submitted a petition with the Islamabad High Court, challenging the grant of bail to six employees of Therapy Works, including its owner and chief executive officer Tahir Zahoor.

The case background

Noor, 27, was found murdered at a residence in Islamabad's upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20.

An FIR was registered later the same day against Zahir, who was arrested from the site of the murder, under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim's father.

Zahir's parents and household staff were also arrested on July 24 over allegations of "hiding evidence and being complicit in the crime". They were made a part of the investigation based on Shaukat's statement, according to a police spokesperson.

In his complaint, Shaukat had stated that he had gone to Rawalpindi on July 19 to buy a goat for Eidul Azha, while his wife had gone out to pick up clothes from her tailor. When he had returned home in the evening, the couple found their daughter Noor absent from their house in Islamabad.

They had found her cellphone number switched off, and started a search for her. Sometime later, Noor had called her parents to inform them that she was travelling to Lahore with some friends and would return in a day or two, according to the FIR.

The complainant said he had later received a call from the suspect, whose family were the ex-diplomat's acquaintances. The suspect had informed Shaukat that Noor was not with him, the FIR said.

At around 10pm on July 20, the victim's father had received a call from Kohsar police station, informing him that Noor had been murdered.

Police had subsequently taken the complainant to Zahir's house in Sector F-7/4 where he discovered that his "daughter has been brutally murdered with a sharp-edged weapon and beheaded", according to the FIR.

Shaukat, who identified his daughter's body, has sought the maximum punishment under the law against Zahir for allegedly murdering his daughter.

Police later said that Zahir had confessed to killing Noor while his DNA test and fingerprints also showed his involvement in the murder.