Teen’s killer says he feared blackmail
A judicial magistrate on Wednesday sent on remand the prime suspect in the brutal murder of a teenage girl who named her attackers in a video recorded moments before she died of multiple stab wounds.
The Airport police apprised the court that Ghayoor Abbass Kalyar had confessed to the murder of the 16-year-old girl whose fatally injured and blood-soaked body was found on Gulistan-e-Sarmast road in Latifabad’s Kohsar area late Monday night.
Locals recorded her dying statement on their cell phone in which she blamed Kalyar and others for the stabbing. Kalyar and the victim lived in the same neighbourhood in the Wahdat Colony area, built for non-gazetted government employees in Qasimabad.
Kalyar’s video confession was also uploaded on social media, where he admits to the crime. He claims that the two were in a relationship which ended around 18 months ago. The victim resumed contact a little while ago, he said, claiming that she had tried to blackmail him with threats of sharing his compromising images with his family and on social media. He said that they had decided to meet on Monday on the understanding that the girl would delete the images and data in her cell phone that might compromise Kalyar. At the meeting, claims Kalyar, the victim refused to fulfil that condition.
However, Kalyar failed to provide any explanation why he went to the meeting armed with a knife that was later used as the murder weapon.
Bizarre arrest
A video was shared on social media which showed the manner in which Kalyar surrendered to the police. An area notable, Waheed Shoro, handed over to the boy to Sub-Inspector Azizullah Sunhro, the in-chare of the Airport police station.
The cop, in civilian clothes and carrying a mobile phone and walkie talkie, stands submissively on one side of the suspect with Shoro on the other. “I think this case is based on a misunderstanding,” Shoro, who is a relative of the provincial irrigation minister, tells the police officer.
He later takes Kalyar’s hand and puts it in Sunhro’s hand while calling a relative of the victim in the room to witness the handover.
The incident’s FIR was lodged on Tuesday on the complaint of the victim’s uncle Aashiq Hussain Mashori, who nominated Kalyar, Dawood and an unknown man. It includes section pertaining to murder and attempted rape.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 16th, 2023.