PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench on Friday granted bail to the prime suspect for the murder of a woman artist two years ago here.

Justice Mohammad Ijaz Khan accepted the bail petition of Malik Qamar Awan on the condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs200,000 each.

The deceased, Noreen alias Saba Gul, was a local performer and mostly acted in CD dramas and music shows.

Her body was recovered from Budhni Nullah in the jurisdiction of Khazana police station on April 13, 2020. It was stuffed in a sack and carried marks of violence.

Noreen was killed in Peshawar around two years ago

A purse was found on the body with a computerised national identity card in it. The CNIC revealed the slain woman’s identity and helped the police inform her father, Jamil Gul, about her murder.

The police registered FIR of the murder on the complaint of Jamil Gul against unidentified people.

The complainant said that his daughter married an Afghan national, Attique, around six years ago and had two children with him.

He said that he had not heard anything about her for the last three years and had learned about her murder by the local police.

The police arrested the petitioner and eight other suspects, including a woman, afterwards.

The prosecution claimed that the wife of the petitioner had left his house and therefore, he was annoyed.

It alleged that to ‘take revenge’ from his wife’s family, the petitioner had killed Noreen alias Saba Gul, who was a friend of the brother of his wife.

Lawyer Mohammad Ashfaq Akhunkhel appeared for the petitioner and contended that eight of the co-accused had already been freed by the police after they got bail from the court.

He added that the complainant had named no one in the FIR and that his client and other suspects were accused by him after few weeks of being involved in the murder.

The lawyer wondered how the complainant could name the nine suspects when he neither knew them nor did he point an accusing finger at them earlier.

He contended that the complainant had himself acknowledged that he had not seen his daughter for around three years.

The counsel argued that the motive provided by the prosecution for the offence was vague and there was no evidence on record to establish it.

He added that the complainant had not assigned any specific role to any of the nine suspects and the petitioner was falsely implicated in the case.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2022