ISLAMABAD: The capital police said media reports on Tuesday misinterpreted the proceedings of the trial court in the Noor Mukadam murder case held on Monday.

The police in a press release clarified that stories appearing in print and social media gave the impression that the police were trying to give benefit to the main murder accused.

In this regard, a meeting chaired by Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammad Ahsan Younas was held to review the progress on the trial of the case in the context of Monday’s proceedings and media reports.

The meeting was attended by DIG operations, chief prosecutor, SSP investigation and investigation officer (IO) of the case.

The IGP was informed that during cross-examination, the IO was asked questions which he answered very briefly as he was told to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

“The answers must corroborate with facts of the case file; however, the whole proceeding was misinterpreted in some media reports,” the police said.

During the trial, the IO was asked if the pant of the accused was stained with blood. The IO replied ‘no’, said the police, explaining that there was no bloodstain on the pant but the shirt of the accused had bloodstains of the victim as per the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) report.

He was further asked were there any fingerprints found on the knife, the weapon of offence? The IO’s answer was ‘no’. The knife recovered from the crime scene was taken into custody, sealed by the National Forensic Science Agency (NFSA) and sent for fingerprinting which could not be developed by the latter. But the report confirmed blood of Noor on the knife.

The IO replied ‘no’ when asked was a photogrammetry test conducted for identification of the victim. The police said the photogrammetry test was conducted only for the identification of the accused so that he could not negate his presence at the crime scene.

The detailed report of the PFSA is yet to be read on the next hearing which contains comprehensive forensic evidence, sufficient for the conviction of the accused, the police said, adding the crime scene was visited by senior most officers at the time of occurrence and the scene was completely preserved by forensic experts of NFSA to avoid any contamination.

The PFSA report confirmed the following facts: the victim was raped before being killed. She made every possible attempt to save her life before being killed. The accused’s DNA, i.e. skin, was recovered under the nails of the victim. Besides, the shirt worn by and recovered from Zahir was stained with Noor’s blood and her DNA was also found on the accused’s shirt.

The victim was killed with the Swiss knife recovered from the crime scene and the DNA, i.e. blood of the victim, was found on the blade and handle of the knife as per the PFSA report, the police said.

Noor was also attacked with a knuckleduster recovered from the crime scene and blood of the victim was found on it as per the PFSA report.

“All these forensic pieces of evidence were collected from the crime scene in a professional manner and were sent to PFSA. These are very strong pieces of forensic evidence and the investigation team is committed to seek justice for Noor,” the police added.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2022