A Pakistani court granted bail on Friday to a couple who confessed to murdering their daughter with acid, citing lack of evidence and witnesses, lawyers said.
Police arrested Mohammed Zafar and his wife Zaheen Akhtar a week after the Oct. 29 attack on their 15-year-old daughter Anusha, who died in agony from horrific burns in Pakistan-administered Kashmir after allegedly looking at boys.
However, district and sessions judge Munir Gilani granted bail because “police had no evidence and they could produce no witnesses,” public prosecutor Mohammad Ali Rathor told reporters.
“The court found it a weak case and, giving the benefit of doubt, granted bail to her parents,” he said.
“No one appeared on behalf of the deceased girl and no human or women rights activists came to pursue the case,” Rathor added.
Defense lawyer Riaz Naveed Butt said the couple were released in Kotli, 130km north of regional capital Muzaffarabad, after depositing bonds worth 100,000 rupees (US$1,020) each.
“My plea was that she was not killed, she committed suicide,” Butt said.
He said that Anusha, who spent two days in agony in hospital, had failed to give a statement naming her killers before she died.
APPEAL
Rathor said he would appeal against the bail because the couple had “confessed.”
The parents told reporters in an interview last month that they waited two days to take Anusha to hospital, where a doctor said she arrived in a “very critical condition” with almost 70 percent burns.
Anusha’s mother, Zaheen, spoke of her remorse.
“I deeply regret my action. I am repenting as I should not have done this, she was very innocent,” she said from her police cell last month.
FAMILY FEARS
She said she and her husband feared Anusha would follow in the footsteps of her elder sister, who was married off at 16 “because people had been talking about her bad character.”
Rights activists say more than 900 women were murdered last year after being accused of bringing shame on their families.
Many such killings are passed off as suicide and suspects who are arrested are often released due to lack of evidence.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese