Uzma’s murder: Suspects remanded to police custody

Police claim to have recovered cell phone used by victim before her death

JHELUM: Nearly five days after a German-Pakistani woman was killed, the police finally presented two suspects in the case before a magistrate and obtained seven-day physical remand.

Separately, the police have managed to secure a video that was apparently shot by the victim just before the incident.

Dr Uzma Khan, a German national who hailed from Kharian, had been tortured and shot dead last week in Jhelum. Police had subsequently arrested her husband Shahbaz Ali.

Later in the week, after recovering the gun believed to have been used in the incident, arrested the gun’s owner Naveed Malik. Malik owns a local law college, which the couple had visited on the day of the crime.

On Sunday, the police finally presented Ali and Malik before a duty judge, Magistrate Qadir Hussain Butt, and sought their custody for further investigations. The magistrate handed the suspects into physical remand for six days.

Video recovered

In another important development related to the case, Daily Express has learnt that a mobile phone used by Dr Uzma till just before her death has been recovered by police.

Police say the phone contains a video which she had recorded just before the event.

Separately, Express News received a video of Dr Uzma’s son on Sunday. The video shows him standing beside his mother’s grave recounting the events of that day.

He claims that they were playing with a gun and that he first pulled the trigger of the gun, firing it into the air. His father then fired the gun a second time after which his mother slumped to the floor while crying.

He added that afterwards, the police had allegedly beaten him while he was handcuffed.

Police officials, however, say that they had recovered a mobile phone – which Dr Uzma had been using to film the incident just before her death - and some of her other belongings from the owner of a private printing press.

Officials said that they had taken the owner of the press into custody as well.

Financial dispute

According to police sources, the Pakistan-born German doctor and her husband had a long-standing dispute over a joint bank account and other financial affairs.

Dr Uzma’s family suspects that she was killed for her life insurance money, adding that she had been asked by her husband to bring all her cash and jewellery to Jhelum from Kharian.

(TRANSLATION BY ARSHAD SHAHEEN)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2017.