In a new twist, spouse accused of stoning Farzana

Deceased’s father, listed as main accused, sent on physical remand.

LAHORE:

In a new twist to the horrific honour killing, Farzana Iqbal’s sister Khalida filed two applications in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdul Qayyum on Saturday, accusing Farzana’s husband, Muhammad Iqbal, of the brutal murder.

Farzana, 25, was killed when people who were assumed to be her family members until now threw stones and bricks at her until she died near the premises of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday.

However, Khalida has sought registration of a case against Farzana’s husband, 12 other nominated accused and as many unknown persons for killing her sister. Talking to The Express Tribune, Zaheer Ahmed Meer, one of Khalida’s counsels, said Iqbal was the actual accused in the case. He accused Iqbal of kidnapping Farzana and forcing her to marry him.

On Tuesday, he went to court with his wife and others for a separate proceeding. When Farzana saw her family at the site, she ran towards them. Iqbal, fearing that she might record a statement against him for kidnapping, tried to stop her and started hitting her with bricks. The counsel alleged that Iqbal had killed his first wife and had abducted Farzana.

In the first application, the sessions judge sought comments from the SHO by June 2. The second was a habeas corpus petition in which Khalida sought the recovery of her father, Muhammad Azeem, from the ‘illegal detention’ of the police.

Azeem was sent to a week-long physical remand by Sessions Judge Rai Ayub Khan Marth of the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday. Investigation Officer (IO) Mian Zulfiqar produced Azeem, who was allegedly involved in stoning his daughter to death ‘in the name of honour’, before the ATC court, seeking 17 days of physical remand on the plea to recover the weapons used in Farzana’s murder, arrest of the co-accused and to complete the investigation.

However, Khalida, blamed the court for informing the police about the bailiff, who, under habeas corpus, is quietly sent to the police station by the judge to inquire whether the name of the detainee was entered in the Roznamcha or not. If it was, then the arrest is legal and vice versa.

But Muhammad Iqbal submitted the bailiff’s report in which the Old Anarkali police had entered the arrest of the accused in the Roznamcha on Friday. Therefore, Azeem’s detention was deemed legal and the petition dismissed.

Nevertheless, Mansoorur Rehman Afridi, another counsel for Khalida, contended that the police had prior information about the bailiff and so they wrongly entered Azeem’s name in the Roznamcha before the inquiry.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2014.