Asma Rani murder: Suspect killed a man six months before killing medical student

DPO hails ‘exemplary cooperation’ from Dubai police to arrest Afridi

PESHAWAR: On the run for nearly a year Mujahid Afridi was finally caught by the Dubai police over the weekend in what local police officials described was the result of cooperation.

Talking to the media at the Malik Saad Shaheed Lines on Sunday, Kohat District Police Officer Abbas Majeed Marwat said that Afridi had been frequently changing his residence while in Dubai as part of a clever scheme to avoid arrest, but ultimately authorities managed to catch up to him.



“We had requested Interpol, via the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) about the arrest of Afridi when he escaped to Saudi Arabia and so were in constant contact from the day first with FIA, Interpol and Dubai state security,” Marwat said.

“There was exemplary cooperation from Dubai State Security and Afridi has been shifted to Pakistan within three days of his arrest,” said Marwat, adding that court would be requested to grant his 10-day physical remand to the police.

He added that they had arrested two other accused including Sadiqullah and Shahzeb, the main facilitator in the murder of third-year medical student Asma Rani. Marwat said that they had also further facilitated Afridi’s subsequent escape to Saudi Arabia.

Moreover, the DPO said that a pistol used in the murder of the student had also been recovered along with the car in which the accused fled, adding that they were using scientific means to investigate the case.

“Let me tell you the weapon used in the murder has been sent to the forensic lab and the report is positive,” he said.



The DPO further said that Afridi is likely to be tried for not one, but two murders after it emerged that he killed another man in Kohat six months before to killing Rani. The DPO added that Afridi had managed to settle that matter with the family of the victim

It is worth mentioning here that Mujahid had been sent to Pakistan from Dubai and he reached Pakistan on Saturday night where he was taken into custody by Kohat Police at Islamabad Airport.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2018.