LAHORE: A sessions court on Tuesday indicted three suspects in the murder case of Mayra Zulfiqar, a British-Belgium young woman of Pakistani origin.

The suspects, Zahir Jadoon, his brother Tahir Jadoon and Muhammad Waseem, pleaded not guilty and decided to contest trial.

Additional District & Sessions Judge Naeem Saleem directed the prosecution to present its witnesses on Sept 22.

Mayra, 25, was found shot dead at her rented house in Defence. She had arrived from the UK, where her family is settled some two months back before her murder, and shared upper portion of the rented house with a friend, who was living in her adjoining room.

The police had nominated Jadoon and other friends of Mayra in the first information report.

BAIL EXTENDED: A sessions court on Tuesday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of two suspects in the Minar-i-Pakistan TikToker assault case and dismissed petitions of two others for non-prosecution.

Suspects Shehroze Saeed and Akhtar Ali appeared before the court and got their pre-arrest bail extended till Sept 23.

The court dismissed the bail petitions of Ilyas Saleem and Usman Aziz as neither they nor their counsel made an appearance.

Some citizens and lawyers gave a good thrashing to Akhtar Ali as they claimed that the suspect was also involved in mobile snatching incidents.

Lorry Adda police had registered an FIR against 400 unidentified persons for assaulting and molesting TikToker Ayesha Akram.

Sections 354-A (assault or use of criminal force against woman and stripping her of her clothes), 382 (theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to commit the theft), 147 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Pakistan Penal Code have been included in the FIR.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2021