The gory acts of femicide and uxoricide under which an accused killed his seven kids including five daughters and two sons along with his wife last week on the second day of Eid-ul-Fitr reportedly owing to poverty in limits of Saddar Police Station Alipur have sent shockwaves to all and sundry across the country.
Police apprehended the accused, M. Sajjad from the Mudhwala area on the same day.
The Chief Minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz had taken notice of the barbarian act and sought a report from IGP, Dr Usman Anwar, about the horrendous incident.
A senior Jurist, Zia-ur-Rehman Randhawa told this news agency on Tuesday that the First Investigation Report (FIR) no 271/ 24 registered by Alipur police could have been improved, had it included anti-terrorism section (7ATA) in it besides section 302 PPC as eight members of a family were brutally murdered by their head.
The accused Muhammad Sajjad is a tailor by profession who had confessed to his crime after committing it, he said and added that the police arrested him on the spot, but in FIR he was shown fleeing the scene which may weaken the prosecution.
He stated that police should have made the parents of Kausar (35), the spouse of the accused, plaintiff in the case for better proceedings adding that if they could not be contacted because they were in Sialkot for winning bread and butter according to the FIR, the state should have followed the case.
The senior lawyer noted that the police acted as an informer only in it and mentioned two private witnesses named Sagheer Ahmed and Imran who could deviate from their statements at any level during case proceedings which may weaken the case further and the accused will get its benefit.
Replying to a question, Mr Randhawa regretted that the police had shown ” traditional negligence” while authoring the FIR because of a lack of proper training in it.
To another question, he recalled that owing to deviation from the witness in social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch assassination case, the accused had got bail.
The jurist regretted that though the Alipur murders incident was a grim reminder of a family murder case by an elder brother in New Multan some years back wherein the culprit had killed his parents and other siblings on account of inherited property, it could be followed by police in a better way to get capital punishment for the accused, M. Sajjad, by submitting the case either in an anti-terrorism court or anti-rape court for speedy justice.
Several attempts were made through messages and calls to DPO Muzaffargarh, Husnain Haider and RPO DG Khan, Sajjad Hassan Khan for their stances, but they were not available to comment on the story.
