syed irfan01
MPA (400+ posts)
Shahzeb Khan was cruising through the streets of Karachi, Pakistan, in the early hours of Christmas morning in a blue Suzuki Swift, an early birthday present from his parents.
The 20-year-old university student was on his way home after hours spent celebrating his older sisters wedding. At about 2:45 a.m., a car pulled alongside him and unleashed a hail of bullets, police say. Doctors said Khan, the son of a local police officer, died almost instantly.
His murder, police say, was an act of revenge.
Khan had argued earlier with a neighbour named Nawab Siraj Talpur after Talpurs servant made an inappropriate remark about Khans sister and Khan slapped him. Khans father intervened and the argument seemed to be settled. But it wasnt long before Talpur and his friend Shahrukh Jatoi, both from families that enjoy positions of privilege, allegedly had their revenge.
Two weeks after Khans murder, one of the two main suspects has been captured, the other has reportedly fled the country with the help of police insiders, and Khan, a good-looking man with spiked hair and a well-groomed beard, has become a national symbol.
In the same way that a young womans rape and murder in India has helped stoke public anger over violence against women, outrage over Khans murder continues to build throughout neighbouring Pakistan, shining an unwanted light on the countrys aristocratic feudal class, infamous for using influence-peddling to sidestep the law.
There were murders before Shahzeb and after him, but what sets this apart is the fact the youth of Pakistan has really risen up and said no more, said Anum Brohi of Mississauga, Khans 23-year-old cousin. It has also really shown the power of social media. There were no reports about this at all for days after his murder.
I remember my mother saying the people who did this are untouchable. But the reaction since then has really given us faith for the first time in Pakistans justice system.
For decades after Pakistan was carved out of former British India, feudal lords and landowners served as police, judges and political leaders, cementing their political power by coercing itinerant labourers to vote as they saw fit.
Khans murder has become a daily story in the countrys English-language newspapers. AFacebook page dedicated to his memory had more than 113,000 likes on Monday. And his case has reportedly attracted the attention of numerous human rights activists and prominent Pakistanis and Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the chief justice of the countrys supreme court.
Two days after Khans murder, Sindh police made two arrests, taking a pair of guards into custody. They also appointed a three-member team to oversee the investigation.
The Express Tribune, a Pakistani newspaper, reported Jan. 1 that Talpur and Jatoi had repeatedly escaped capture with the help of police informants.
Shahzebs father, Aurangzeb Khan, said police initially refused to register a complaint following the murder. When my son was brought to the hospital, the police wouldnt even come to the hospital for an inquiry, said the victims father, a deputy police superintendent with 32 years on the force.
He told the Express Tribune that the Jatoi family was using its money and influence to impede the investigation. The police only conducted raids at the suspects houses when they had escaped, he said. They should have picked up their relatives and other family members (and made inquiries). But this is not happening.
Police began to take the case seriously after the involvement of Nabil Gabol, a senior official with the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party who is a relative of Khan.
By Friday, with public interest in the case surging, Chaudhry summoned police officials to a hearing and scolded them. He gave police 24 hours to make an arrest, or risk losing their jobs.
The following day, Talpur was arrested. On Monday, he appeared in court.
Used to sitting on comfortable sofas all his life, the son of a feudal elite was seated on a hard wooden bench outside the courtroom, waiting for his turn, the Express Tribune reported. The band of gun-toting guards that used to accompany him around the city was replaced with over two dozen policemen.
At the same hearing during which the 22-year-old Talpur was remanded, Chaudhry gave police another deadline. Even as Karachi police revealed that they had reached out to Interpol after reports that Jatoi may have fled to Dubai, Chaudhry ordered police to bring him to court by Thursday.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1311865--outrage-in-pakistan-as-police-slow-to-arrest-murder-suspects-from-elite-class
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