Zain’s killing: I fired only to deter people: Kanju

LAHORE: Mustafa Kanju, accused of shooting 16-year-old Zain Rauf on April 1, says he had opened fire only to scare away some people. “I did not want to kill anyone… I was not drunk when I fired shots from an AK-47 rifle,” Kanju told police on Sunday. Inspector Imtiaz Shah, the investigation officer at South Cantonment police station, said they had sent the rifle to the Forensic Science Laboratory where finger prints on it had matched with those of Kanju. He had earlier said he doubted that Zain had died by his firing. Police had registered a case against Kanju and his security guards under Section 302 (murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act. On Friday, an anti-terrorism court had remanded Kanju in police custody for eight days.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2015.