Parents, Mufti Qavi included in Qandeel murder probe

DG KHAN/ MULTAN: In a major development, police on Monday expanded the scope of investigation into the murder of social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch, whose real name is Fozia Azeem, as they included her parents and cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi in the probe.

Qandeel, popular for her risqué videos and selfies on social media,
was drugged and strangled to death on Friday at her Multan residence by her brother, Muhammad Waseem, who confessed to have killed her for honour.



SHO Muzaffarabad police station revealed that the father of Qandeel Baloch had changed his statement thrice. The autopsy report had also contradicted the time of murder, as stated by her parents in the FIR. The report made by a three members of the panel in Multan’s Nishtar Hospital stated that the murder was comitted between 9pm-10 pm on Friday and the body was reported to Rescue 1122 on Saturday morning around 11 am. However, the parents claimed that their son had murdered Qandeel around 2am to 3am in the morning.

The suspect, Waseem, had stated that he had drugged Qandeel by the same medicines his father used for sleep. He also revealed that he had come thrice before with the intention of murdering his sister but every time his parents sent him off by saying that she was not at home.

The police also included name of Mufti Abdul Qavi, whose ‘selfie’ photographs had appeared on social media last month and stirred a controversy costing him membership of moon-sighting committee.

On Monday, the mother of Qandeel Boloch accused Qavi of instigating his sons – Shahid, Aashiq and Waseem – against Qandeel.

Qavi said it was surprisingly she was not cursing her sons and the real reason of the murder. “I do not want to break the heart of Qandeel’s mother and want police to do the investigations on merit,” he said.



Inclusion of section 311

Police have added Section 311 in the FIR after initial investigations. This mean inclusion of the state in the investigation as an applicant and it will not let in the future the major applicant Muhammad Azeem to forgive his son Muhammad Waseem, who is major accused in the case.

CPO Multan Azhar Akram said Section 311 about compounding the right of qisas has been added in the FIR to make qisas inapplicable in the case. The prime suspect, Waseem, has been sent to the Muzaffarabad police station for physical remand for three days.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2016.