SUKKUR/ HYDERABAD: Two suspects, Qaisar Chandio and Wali Mohammad Chandio, were produced before Civil Judge Nadeem Ali Buriro on Thursday in connection with the brutal murder of Rubina Chandio alias Khalida.

The judge remanded Qaisar to judicial custody and granted a four-day police remand for Wali Mohammad.

The victim was murdered six days ago in an act filmed and shared on social media. Following a suo motu notice by District Judge Mano Mal and Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, SSP Khairpur Amir Saud Magsi confirmed the arrest of 18 individuals, including five named suspects and several onlookers.

However, the victim’s family has levelled grave allegations of police complicity. The victim’s father, Muhammad Ramzan, claimed his daughter was abducted by Saddam Chandio and eventually handed over to her maternal uncle, Qaisar, through intermediaries. He alleged that Salim Chandio incited the murder, promising to produce the abductor so both could be killed together. When only the girl was murdered, Ramzan’s father, Wali Muhammad, attempted to seek a post-mortem but was instead arrested by ASI Ghulam Mustafa Kandhro.

The father accused the ASI of accepting a Rs250,000 bribe from the abductor’s party to frame the victim’s own family and demolishing their homes. The victim’s mother further alleged that the abductor’s cousins paid Rs500,000 to influence the FIR, demanding that Saddam and his associates be formally charged.

The incident sparked widespread outrage. PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh condemned the murder as a “crime against humanity”, blaming the provincial government’s failure to uphold the rule of law. Simultaneously, the District Bar Association Khairpur announced a boycott, urging lawyers not to represent the accused while pledging free legal aid to the victim’s family to ensure “exemplary punishment” for the perpetrators.

Sindhiani Tahreek observes hunger strike

In Hyderabad, activists of the Sindhiani Tahreek observed a token hunger strike outside the local press club on Thursday in protest against the brutal murders of a young woman, Rubina Chandio, and 14-year-old girl, Shumaila Chandio, in separate incidents in Sindh.

The party’s central leadership condemned the killings, saying that Rubina Chandio alias Khalida was murdered in the village of Butto Chandio within the limits of Tando Masti police station.

Separately, they said, 14-year-old Shumaila Chandio was abducted from her house by her cousins, Wajid and Rashid, after she rejected a marriage proposal in the village of Nabi Bux Chandio near Hala.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2026