PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has denied the bail request of a suspect who was detained last year on suspicion of killing his female relative out of honor and injuring two of her in-laws in the Malakand district.
A bench made up of Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar noted that, based on a cursory review of the material on file, there were reasonable grounds to believe that the petitioner, Zahoorur Rehman, was implicated in the lady’s honor killing. As a result, the petitioner’s request for bail could not be granted under the circumstances.
On July 10, 2023, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed about the incident at Police Station Dargai in Malakand, using various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The complainant in the First Information Report (FIR) was Mudassir, the father-in-law of the deceased woman, Ms. Asma. He said that he, Ms. Asma, and his daughter, Ms. Warida, had taken a taxi to a nearby hospital. He said that when they were heading back, Ms. Asma was shot and killed, and he and his daughter were injured. The current petitioner, Zahoorur Rehman, and two other suspects, Zahri Nawaz and Afsar Nawab, opened fire on them.
The complainant stated that her family members, along with the three accused, were displeased that the deceased had gone into a court marriage with his son, Nigar.
The bench noted that the record showed that the complainant had filed the report while riding in the same vehicle as the ladies who had died and been injured, and that he had continued to be a victim of the same incident by receiving gunshot wounds to his body.
It was noted that the incident happened during the day and that the driver of the motorcar and the injured witnesses were there.
The bench observed that the complainant in his initial statement had specifically charged the petitioner for effective firing upon the deceased woman wow as the bone of contention as per version of the prosecution in view of her love marriage with the complainant’s son Nigar.
It was added that medical evidence was in line with the contents of the FIR and the prosecution version was further corroborated by recovery of two pistols from the possession of the petitioner at the time of his arrest.
Additional Advocate General Haqnawaz Khan produced a copy of an application dated September 13, 2022, which moved the deceased woman to the position of assistant commissioner in Tehsil Dargai. In this application, she requested a security bond be taken from the suspects and the current petitioner in order to pursue legal action against them for allegedly posing a threat to her and her husband’s lives.
He declared that the complainant’s claimed motivation for committing the crime could not be disregarded in the decision-making process for this particular petition.
The petitioner’s attorney claimed that Ms. Sabila, the mother of the deceased, had not objected to the petitioner’s release on bond. He claimed that because the cab driver’s statement did not match the complainant’s, it had also raised questions.
The bench noted that Ms. Sabila did not object because the petitioner was her sister’s brother-in-law and she supported the petitioner because of this relationship.
