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Updated July 23rd, 2021 at 23:58 IST

Pakistan diplomat's daughter shot & slaughtered by tycoon's son in Islamabad; cops dither

Noor Muqaddam, daughter of former Pakistani diplomat to S Korea, was slaughtered in Islamabad. The accused is son of one of the richest families in the country.

Reported by: Srishti Jha
Pakistan
AP | Image:self
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In a nerve-racking incident in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, during the night of July 20, 27-year-old Noor Muqaddam, the daughter of a former Pakistani diplomat to South Korea & Kazakhstan Shaukat Muqaddam, was brutally slaughtered. According to a preliminary probe, she was shot and then allegedly beheaded in an upscale residential area. The accused in the case is of Pakistani origin and has US citizenship, identified as Zahir Jaffer, the son of a business tycoon operating in sectors like power, technology and agriculture.

The accused was arrested on the spot and taken under police custody, as per Islamabad Police statements. 

Taking to Twitter, the local police said, "As soon as the murder of a woman in Islamabad Sector 4 / F-7 was reported, senior officers rushed to the spot and started investigation. A man named Zahir Jaffer, who was allegedly involved in the murder, was arrested on the spot and shifted to the police station. The case is being registered,"

Contradictory statements in Noor Muqaddam's murder case

While the Inspector General has asserted "all the requirements of justice will be met in the investigation so that the accused is punished severely", elements of the investigation and medical reports of the gruesome murder appear to differ. Previously the cops claimed that the murder victim was first shot and then slaughtered, however, the medical reports revealed the recovered murder weapon was only a knife and no firing (loss of bullet) was reported during the interrogation.

"No eyewitness accounts have been released. The accused was conscious and not intoxicated at the time of the murder. The murder weapon recovered was a knife. However, a pistol was also recovered from the accused while no firing was reported during the interrogation," cops further stated.

Additionally, Islamabad Police stated that Noor Muqaddam's parents said she was missing from her residence for over two days; it is pertinent to note that her corpse was retrieved from Zahir's house and her parents were aware that she was with him because a call was traced at 10 pm on July 20 where Shaukat Muqaddam was enquiring about his daughter.

Deeming Zahir's residence as the crime scene, Islamabad Police had said, "The IG Islamabad inspected the scene along with senior officers on the murder of a woman in F-Seven Four area of Kohsar police station, reviewed the progress of the investigation so far and formed a special investigation team. SSP Investigation in the investigation team, SP City and ASP Kohsar"

Taking to Twitter, local police further stated as follows, 

The ambiguity in the probe raises questions over the conduct of the police, given the murder occurred in the capital of Pakistan and involved influential persons.

Meanwhile, anguished activists and scholars in Pakistan denounced the incident and have established that crimes and ill-treatment of women and children do not seem to evade the country's bulletin even in the 21st century. They stated that Zahir came from one of the most influential families and as the trend goes, the strata is known to bribe their way to attain or avert justice. 

Pakistan ranks sixth in the list of most dangerous countries for women in the world. Official data released by Pakistan disclosed that at least 11 cases of rape are reported in the country every 24 hours, however, the rape conviction rate stands at 0.3 %.

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Published July 23rd, 2021 at 23:58 IST

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