TOBA TEK SINGH: A judicial magistrate on Saturday extended the physical remand of the four suspects in the murder case of a young woman who was killed by her brother, in connivance with other family members, over a fortnight back.

The brutal murder was revealed after a video clip of the gory incident surfaced on social media.

On Saturday, Toba Saddar police produced the suspects — Faisal and Shahbaz (victim Maria’s brothers), their father Abdul Sattar and Shahbaz’s wife Sumera — in the court of judicial magistrate on completion of their two-day remand earlier granted by the court.

The police requested the court to extend the suspects’ physical remand by 12 days for investigation. However, the court approved only four days remand of the four suspects.

A suspect’s counsel withdraws representation

Deceased Maria was allegedly strangled by the suspects at Chak 477-JB in their house on March 17 night. Her body was later buried in the village graveyard.

Meanwhile, a former president of the district bar association, Advocate Kamran Zafar, who was the counsel for one of the suspects, Shahbaz, announced on Saturday that he no more wanted to represent the suspect.

Speaking at a press conference, the lawyer said he had decided to become the suspect’s counsel considering him innocent.

“However, now when Shahbaz has confessed that he had also repeatedly raped Maria and his wife Sumera attempted to abort the victim’s four-month pregnancy, failing which they murdered her, I have decided to not to defend the suspect in the court,” the lawyer said.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2024