Why there will be more to Noor Bibi than an unmarked grave
The partially burnt body of 24-year-old Noor Bibi, a resident of Palosai village, was found inside a toilet.
Jamshed confesses to killing Noor Bibi, also confessed to setting her body on fire. PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR:
Noor Bibi would have been one of the ‘unidentified’ victims buried at the Rehman Baba graveyard had the Peshawar High Court not taken up the case of her brutal killing at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).
On Monday, March 27, the PHC summoned the chief executive of LRH, Arshad Javed, along with police officials investigating the murder, after an application was filed by the court’s Human Rights Directorate (HRD). The partially burnt body of 24-year-old Noor Bibi, a resident of Palosai village, was found inside a toilet at the LRH’s Accident and Emergency Centre last month.
The issue was taken up and officials along with the hospital’s emergency centre’s records were summoned by the court, which gave the probing team a week to reach a conclusion regarding the mysterious death.
“Take it as a test case. Use all scientific means of investigation. Collect phone data, fingerprints and investigate the hospital staff as well,” Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan was quoted as directing the probing team.
The widened scope of investigation and introduction of scientific analysis allowed police to attain data from Noor’s cell phone and arrest the culprits.
The investigation team made a breakthrough when it discovered Noor had received more than a dozen calls from a number on the same day she was killed. By tracing the number, the team collected information on Jamshed, and eventually arrested him.
On April 2, a day before the court’s deadline expired, the probing team’s head Deputy Superintendent of Police Saleem Riaz received information claiming Jamshed was at Chowk Yadgar in the city centre. Acting on intelligence information, police conducted a midnight raid in which Jamshed and four others were apprehended.
When produced before Riaz, Jamshed confessed to killing Noor. He claimed despite being married Noor wanted to elope with him, and further said he had never thought of marrying her. Jamshed added he took her to the LRH and killed her because he was fed up of the situation. The killer also confessed to setting her body on fire.
“It would amount to stigmatising my own department but let me tell you frankly, had the issue not been pushed by the PHC, the file would have been closed and the body buried,” said a police official close to the investigation team.
Jamshed has since been arrested. The court on April 10 further directed Arshad Javed to handover suspected LRH employees, maintaining a murder in such a high-security location cannot take place without collusion of staffers.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2013.
Noor Bibi would have been one of the ‘unidentified’ victims buried at the Rehman Baba graveyard had the Peshawar High Court not taken up the case of her brutal killing at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).
On Monday, March 27, the PHC summoned the chief executive of LRH, Arshad Javed, along with police officials investigating the murder, after an application was filed by the court’s Human Rights Directorate (HRD). The partially burnt body of 24-year-old Noor Bibi, a resident of Palosai village, was found inside a toilet at the LRH’s Accident and Emergency Centre last month.
The issue was taken up and officials along with the hospital’s emergency centre’s records were summoned by the court, which gave the probing team a week to reach a conclusion regarding the mysterious death.
“Take it as a test case. Use all scientific means of investigation. Collect phone data, fingerprints and investigate the hospital staff as well,” Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan was quoted as directing the probing team.
The widened scope of investigation and introduction of scientific analysis allowed police to attain data from Noor’s cell phone and arrest the culprits.
The investigation team made a breakthrough when it discovered Noor had received more than a dozen calls from a number on the same day she was killed. By tracing the number, the team collected information on Jamshed, and eventually arrested him.
On April 2, a day before the court’s deadline expired, the probing team’s head Deputy Superintendent of Police Saleem Riaz received information claiming Jamshed was at Chowk Yadgar in the city centre. Acting on intelligence information, police conducted a midnight raid in which Jamshed and four others were apprehended.
When produced before Riaz, Jamshed confessed to killing Noor. He claimed despite being married Noor wanted to elope with him, and further said he had never thought of marrying her. Jamshed added he took her to the LRH and killed her because he was fed up of the situation. The killer also confessed to setting her body on fire.
“It would amount to stigmatising my own department but let me tell you frankly, had the issue not been pushed by the PHC, the file would have been closed and the body buried,” said a police official close to the investigation team.
Jamshed has since been arrested. The court on April 10 further directed Arshad Javed to handover suspected LRH employees, maintaining a murder in such a high-security location cannot take place without collusion of staffers.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2013.