Plot thickens as cemetery case turns labyrinthine
No one ready to file a case against the man who defiled 48 corpses.
KARACHI:
The authorities claim that they have over a thousand witnesses and are in touch with the families of the 48 women whose corpses were defiled by Mohammad Riaz yet they had to register a case on behalf of the state. They said it was necessary to do so as no one had filed a complaint.
However, they were certain that they could prove him guilty in court with solid evidence, eye-witness accounts and his confession.
On Saturday night, Riaz was presented before the media at a press conference at the North Nazimabad police station. He was wearing a light brown shalwar kameez and appeared to be very confident and aware of what he was doing. However, while talking to The Express Tribune later that night, he seemed quite lost and confused. His reddish-brown hair were a mess as he was brought into the DSP’s room. The policemen did not let him sit - he just stood there with a cloth covering his face.
He kept on repeating that his family was from Sargodha and he had been working at the Paposh Nagar graveyard for eight years - but when asked about when he had started defiling corpses of women, or how he did it, Riaz did not have a coherent answer. He did mention that he was the eldest of three siblings and was looking forward to getting married.
The police said that they caught him on Saturday evening as he was running away from a grave. They added that there was an angry mob chasing him with sticks. The grave diggers, on the other hand beg to differ. According to them, nothing of the sort had happened. “Our graveyard is pure, nothing like this has ever happened before. I have been here forever,” said Fatima Baloch, who looks after the graveyard. “We are Baloch people and if something like this was going on we would have shot the culprit long ago.”
While talking to The Express Tribune about the grave digger who taught Riaz to defile corpses, Wazir, the police said that he was a drug addict and had died two years ago. The grave diggers, however, claim that Wazir went missing over two years ago.
According to grave digger Noor Mohammad, the authorities were trying to arrest Riaz in a fake case. “These rumours have been going on forever,” he said. “It is all a lie, there was no one running after him. Riaz has been with the police for the last couple of days because he had refused to move a corpse.” He added that the accused had exchanged hot words with the police because they had asked him to move a body.
DSP Abdul Rashid Khan said that they have registered FIR no. 517/11 under section 297, 376, 377 and 354 of the Pakistan Penal Code on behald of the Paposh Nagar police post in-charge Chaudhry Saeed. Responding to a question about what he planned to do if the suspect or witnesses backed out, DSP Khan said that they would just have to deal with it. “At the end of the day it will be up to the magistrate because the witnesses and suspect can always retract their statements,” he said. “In cases such as this one, we try to carry out a medical check-up on the victims but their families are usually against it for obvious reasons.” The authorities claim that the key witness of the incident is a grave digger by the name of Abdul Wahid. Wahid’s colleagues at the graveyard claim that he escaped as soon as details of Riaz’s case become known in the media.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 31st, 2011.
The authorities claim that they have over a thousand witnesses and are in touch with the families of the 48 women whose corpses were defiled by Mohammad Riaz yet they had to register a case on behalf of the state. They said it was necessary to do so as no one had filed a complaint.
However, they were certain that they could prove him guilty in court with solid evidence, eye-witness accounts and his confession.
On Saturday night, Riaz was presented before the media at a press conference at the North Nazimabad police station. He was wearing a light brown shalwar kameez and appeared to be very confident and aware of what he was doing. However, while talking to The Express Tribune later that night, he seemed quite lost and confused. His reddish-brown hair were a mess as he was brought into the DSP’s room. The policemen did not let him sit - he just stood there with a cloth covering his face.
He kept on repeating that his family was from Sargodha and he had been working at the Paposh Nagar graveyard for eight years - but when asked about when he had started defiling corpses of women, or how he did it, Riaz did not have a coherent answer. He did mention that he was the eldest of three siblings and was looking forward to getting married.
The police said that they caught him on Saturday evening as he was running away from a grave. They added that there was an angry mob chasing him with sticks. The grave diggers, on the other hand beg to differ. According to them, nothing of the sort had happened. “Our graveyard is pure, nothing like this has ever happened before. I have been here forever,” said Fatima Baloch, who looks after the graveyard. “We are Baloch people and if something like this was going on we would have shot the culprit long ago.”
While talking to The Express Tribune about the grave digger who taught Riaz to defile corpses, Wazir, the police said that he was a drug addict and had died two years ago. The grave diggers, however, claim that Wazir went missing over two years ago.
According to grave digger Noor Mohammad, the authorities were trying to arrest Riaz in a fake case. “These rumours have been going on forever,” he said. “It is all a lie, there was no one running after him. Riaz has been with the police for the last couple of days because he had refused to move a corpse.” He added that the accused had exchanged hot words with the police because they had asked him to move a body.
DSP Abdul Rashid Khan said that they have registered FIR no. 517/11 under section 297, 376, 377 and 354 of the Pakistan Penal Code on behald of the Paposh Nagar police post in-charge Chaudhry Saeed. Responding to a question about what he planned to do if the suspect or witnesses backed out, DSP Khan said that they would just have to deal with it. “At the end of the day it will be up to the magistrate because the witnesses and suspect can always retract their statements,” he said. “In cases such as this one, we try to carry out a medical check-up on the victims but their families are usually against it for obvious reasons.” The authorities claim that the key witness of the incident is a grave digger by the name of Abdul Wahid. Wahid’s colleagues at the graveyard claim that he escaped as soon as details of Riaz’s case become known in the media.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 31st, 2011.