Quest for justice: Relatives of murdered student threaten self-immolation

Nawaz was strangled by unknown persons and his body dumped in a parking lot.

HARIPUR:

Women related to a student murdered in Karachi took to the streets in Haripur to protest against the delay in the arrest of his killers and threatened to commit collective self-immolation in front of parliament if the government failed to bring them to justice.

Farrukh Nawaz, 25, a chartered financial analyst student at the College of Account and Management Sciences, Karachi, was strangled by unknown persons last year. An FIR was registered with the local police station on September 7, 2011, after his body was found dumped in Jinnah Hospital’s parking lot.

The women marched from Mohalla Makki Masjid Darband Adda and took to  the roads carrying placards inscribed with their demands.

The protesting women appealed to the government and the CJ and to help bring the culprits to justice, or else have collective self-immolation on their conscience.

Nawaz’s mother, Naheed Bibi, while talking to the media, stated that the police had initially declared Farrukh as an unidentified person, but on the instructions of Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry who was in Karachi at the time, they traced his family through the National Database and Registration Authority.

“The police have not made any arrests so far and investigation officers (IOs) are being changed frequently,” she said.  Four IOs have already been transferred and their present replacement is not taking any interest in the case.

When asked, she declined to consider that her son or family shared an enmity with anyone in Karachi or in their village, or that he may have fallen victim to street crime, stating that he was in Abbottabad during his college vacations.

She added that Adeel, a college friend, had called him back with a job offer in Karachi. She disclosed that though she did not have any proof, it had been learnt from sources that Farrukh had invested in an export business with Adeel who has since left for Sri Lanka.

Taj Bibi, another relative, stated that the police had not carried out a thorough investigation despite taking Farrukh’s cell phone into custody which must have contained calls and SMS data.

When pressed for comments, IO Shafique Afridi told The Express Tribune over the telephone that he had interrogated Adeel and other suspects but the search for the murderers had proved unfruitful.

“I am trying my best but I have been unable to find any proof. How can I arrest a passerby when Farrukh’s parents have not directly nominated anyone in the FIR?” questioned Afridi.

When asked whether cell phone and text message records had been culled, he responded by saying that franchise owners and agencies do not provide data older than three months, whereas six months have passed since the murder.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2012.