QUETTA: Some two weeks after being arrested, Balochistan minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran was granted bail in the Barkhan’s triple murder case on Friday.

The grisly murders and subsequent discovery of three corpses from a well — those of a woman and two young men — in Balochistan’s Barkhan district triggered protests and highlighted the inhumanity of illegal prisons.

The victims were said to be captives since 2019 in an illegal prison allegedly run by Mr Khetran, a prominent leader of the government aligned-Balochistan Awami Party and the provincial minister for communication works.

On Friday, a judicial magistrate in Barkhan’s Rakhni town, Sessions Judge Malik Shujauddin, approved Mr Khetran’s bail.

Advocate Manzoor Rehmani, Mr Khetran’s lawyer, filed the bail application in the court, pleading that allegations levelled against the provincial minister about the recovery of three bodies from Barkhan could not be proved.

He argued that the witnesses Ghafoor Shah, Salam Shah and Rauf Shah, who also appeared before the court, too rejected the allegations against the accused.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge accepted the application and approved Mr Khetran’s bail on surety bonds of Rs500,000, citing “lack of evidence”.

Last month, Mr Khetran was arrested on suspicion of his involvement in the case.

When the bullet-riddled bodies of the woman and two men were found near the minister’s residence in the Barkhan area, the police initially identified them as Granaz, wife of Khan Muhammad Marri, and her two sons.

At the time, Mr Marri said the corpses were of his wife and sons, alleging that they were held in Mr Khetran’s private jail. He said more of his children, including a daughter, were among the captives.

Subsequently, Granaz was recovered along with her 17-year-old daughter Farzana and son.

Two other sons were recovered from Kohlu.

The woman found in the well is still unidentified.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2023