HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Antiterrorism Court (ATC) on Tuesday remanded two suspects in police custody for seven days in the Tania Khaskheli murder case.

Prime suspect Khan Mohammed alias Khano Nohani and Maula Bukhsh alias Mauloo were produced in the court by the Jamshoro police after inserting Section 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 in the FIR registered against them.

The suspects had allegedly killed Tania Khaskheli in her house located in the Jhangara-Bajara town of Sehwan taluka on Sept 7 after her parents repeatedly turned down Nohani’s marriage proposal for the 19-year-old woman.

The suspects had been at large since Sept 7. The police claimed to have arrested Mauloo a few days back and Nohani on Monday night. The FIR against them and some of their other associates was lodged by the victim’s father, Ghulam Qadir Khaskheli.

Jamshoro SSP Irfan Bahadur has also submitted a report in the Sindh High Court regarding the incident. The high court had taken notice of the gruesome murder after the incident created an uproar in various parts of Sindh, besides the social media.

Meanwhile, activists of various civil society organisations have appealed to the government to award exemplary punishment to the killers of Tania Khaskheli and their facilitators. They were speaking at a press conference held at the local press club on Tuesday.

Advocate Ali Palh of the Sindh Human Rights Defenders said that the police seemed to be giving favour to the suspects. He said that the aggrieved family had already complained to the area police about harassment and extortion in the past on the part of the alleged killers and their associates.

He urged all governmental and non-governmental human rights and women’s rights bodies to raise their voice in order to bring the culprits to justice.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf activist Zulfiqar Halepoto, Suleman G. Abro of the Agricultural and Forestry Workers Coordinating Organisation, women’s rights activist Zahida Abro and Mustafa Mirani of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum were among the others who spoke at the press conference.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2017