Burnt asunder: Suspects in girl’s murder refuse confessional statements

16-year-old victim was set ablaze for allegedly helping couple elope

ABBOTTABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) sent nine people suspected of burning a girl to death to jail on judicial remand on Friday. None of the accused recorded a confessional statement and denied any link to the murder.

At least 15 suspects, including the mother of the victim, were arrested by Abbottabad police on charges of strangling and burning a 16-year-old girl from Makol Payeen village in Galiyat during the early hours of April 29.

According to police records, the suspects held a jirga and condemned the teenager to death for her alleged role in helping a couple elope on April 28.

The couple married in Musa area of Tupla village, but the girl’s family held the deceased responsible for arranging meetings between the two and helping them elope. The victim was sedated and strangled first before being set on fire in a high roof van parked outside the village.

The victim's mother was bailed out a few days ago. However, the 14 suspects remained with a joint investigation team of the counter-terrorism department and the police till May 28. Five of them were sent to Mansehra district jail on the same day, while the physical remand of nine others was extended till June 2.

They were produced before the ATC judge on Friday under tight security. The accused, according to their counsel, Advocate Atif Khan Jadoon, refused to confess their crime and the court sent them to Mansehra district jail on judicial remand.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2016.