Police charge brother of alleged harassment victim in explosives case in Nawabshah

Family claims case is fabricated and intends to pressurise victim to withdraw harassment claims

HYDERABAD: Zuhaib Jamali has been booked in an FIR for a low intensity explosion, which occurred three days ago, near Habib Sugar Mills in Shaheed Benazirabad. Zuhaib is the brother of Farzana Jamali, a student of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Nawabshah, who has accused faculty member Prof Amir Ali Khattak, of harassment. Farzana and her family claim that Zuhaib is being falsely implicated in the case in order to pressurise the family to withdraw from the harassment case.

Officials at B-Section police station lodged an FIR, under Sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act, against Zuhaib, Arif Panhwar and an unknown person on Saturday. According to the police, Zuhaib was injured while planting the improvised explosive device and was admitted to a hospital for medical treatment.



Meanwhile, Panhwar was taken to the civil judge and judicial magistrate who granted police permission to take him in physical remand.  On Sunday, the Airport police of Nawabshah lodged another FIR against Panhwar.

He has been booked for possessing explosive material and pamphlets of a banned organisation which were recovered during the police raid carried out on Panhwar's alleged disclosure during the investigation.

Farzana and her father Aijaz Jamali at a press conference in Nawabshah have called for forming an impartial joint investigation team to dig out facts of the incident. "After the inquiry if my brother is found involved, we will help the law enforcement agencies to pursue a case against him and we won't give him legal assistance either," said Farzana, who earlier this month accused the university's English department's acting chairman Khattak of harassment and the vice chancellor (VC) Arshad Saleem Arain of connivance.



"But the fact is that under the garb of the explosion case, I and my family are being pressurised to withdraw from the harassment case," she said. She went on to allege that the VC and other influential people are involved in the explosion and that her brother was framed.

"Panhwar was a pawn in the hands of the influential persons who used him to trap my brother." Farzana told The Express Tribune that on the eve of the blast, Panhwar came to their home and asked her brother to accompany him to a place with regard to some tests at the National Testing Service.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2018.