PTI female councillor arrested for journalist's murder

Prosecution says Hina Akhtar had Bakhshish Elahi murdered over personal differences with another journalist's help

HARIPUR: A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) female councillor and a man have been arrested for a journalist's murder in Haripur. They were remanded by a court on Saturday.

Last month, Bakhshish Elahi, the bureau chief of an Urdu newspaper, was targeted by unidentified motorcyclists near Lora Chowk when he was heading to work.

After the slain journalist's brother filed a case, the Haripur police arrested two suspects, Hina Akhtar, a PTI councillor on a reserved seat, and Hanif Akhtar, and presented them before a judicial magistrate.



According to the prosecution, Hina, who had personal differences with Elahi, contacted Hanif, who too is a journalist and the bureau chief of another Urdu newspaper. Hanif told Hina that he also wanted Elahi "out of the way".

In her statement before the magistrate, the PTI councillor said she had offered to pay Rs0.5 million to Hanif to have Elahi assassinated. She paid him Rs0.1 million and promised to pay the rest of the money later.

The judicial magistrate transferred the case to an anti-terrorism court, which remanded Hanif in the custody of the counter-terrorism department for three days. Hina was remanded in judicial custody at the Haripur central prison.

The police said they had recorded the statements of around 400 people to solve the case.