Stabbing spree: Suspect’s lawyer claims client is mentally ill

RAWALPINDI: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday has sent Muhammad Ali, who was arrested in connection with several knife attacks on women, to Adiala jail on judicial remand.

Judge Qasim Rasool ordered that the accused be incarcerated after the Morgah police stated that they had completed their investigation into the case and have submitted their investigation report.

Ali’s lawyer Advocate Raja Sitarullah later claimed before the media that his client was mentally ill, without explaining further.

The advocate also claimed that his client, 19, had undergone gallbladder surgery and was admitted in Fauji Foundation Hospital on August 7, when Anam Naz, a nurse and the only recorded fatality in the string of knife attacks, was stabbed.

He claimed that the police had arrested Ali in an attempt to- cover up their own inefficiency, and to cloak the increasing number of knife attacks in the area. Ali was arrested on August 9.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2016.