Daily Times

A judicial magistrate court on Thursday granted a 10-day physical remand of Provincial Minister for Communication and Works (C&W) Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran in the Barkhan triple murder case.

Sardar Abdul Rahman, who was arrested on Wednesday after the recovery of the dead bodies of a woman and her two sons from a well in Barkhan, was produced by the police in the court of judicial magistrate.

The case of the gruesome murders in Barkhan took another turn on Thursday, as Khan Muhammad Marri – father of two of the victims – claimed that Balochistan Minister for Construction and Communications Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran wanted him to give false testimony against his son. Khan Muhammad – the man who had accused Khetran of keeping his children in a “private jail” after his family members were found dead in a well in Barkhan district – joined the sit-in being staged in Quetta. “My sons have been murdered by Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran,” Khan Muhammad said.

He said that he was a servant of Khetran, and had escaped one of the minister’s ” three private jails” where he had kept other women, the elderly and children. “The bodies found from Barkhan well are of my sons,” he said, adding that he was informed that the remaining family members had been recovered by the levies force. He regretted the brutal murder of the girl found dead along with his sons, saying that she was unidentifiable but “she is someone’s sister or daughter”. He reiterated his allegations saying that Balochistan minister Abdul Rehman Khetran was “behind this incident” and his children were held in the “private jail”. Khan Muhammad’s statement came after the Levies Force “recovered” his wife, Giran Naz – who had been presumed dead – and their five children including a girl, allegedly abducted by Khetran. The operation was conducted in light of Khan Muhammad’s allegations that sparked protests across Balochistan for the recovery of missing persons, after the discovery of bullet-riddled bodies of three people from a well in the Barkhan district. The provincial minister – who denied any involvement in the brutal murders – was taken into custody by police on Wednesday.

However, during the search operations, Marri’s wife, Giran Naz, who was presumed dead, along with her children Farzana, Abdul Majeed, Abdul Ghaffar, Imran and Abdul Sattar were recovered, the Levies officials said. The force took action in the areas of Kohlu, Dakki, Barkhan and Dera Bugti as Khan Muhammad Marri’s family was held hostage at different locations. The Levies Quick Response Force conducted operations in east Balochistan and South Punjab to recover the hostages, it said. The force also foiled an attempt to transfer the two kidnapped boys to Punjab.

Specifying the locations, the Levies officials said that Naz, Farzana and Imran were recovered from Kohlu, Chamalang and Dakki in the border area of Bala Dhaka, respectively. Meanwhile, Majeed was recovered from Dakki, and Ghaffar and Sattar from Kohlu and Dera Bugti, respectively, they added. No arrests were made in the operations, the force added. Naz and her children have been kept under the protection of a law enforcement agency. The pictures of the recovered people have also surfaced. In one of the pictures, Naz and her children are seen walking with the Levies personnel after being rescued, while in the other a Levies official is seen covering the woman with a shawl. Meanwhile, the police completed the autopsy of the bodies found in the well. Police Surgeon Dr Aisha Faiz, who performed the post-mortems, revealed that one of the deceased was a 17 to 18-year-old female. She said that the deceased was raped and tortured before being shot dead. The medico-legal officer said that the autopsy finds that the girl was shot thrice in the head and her face and neck were mutilated with acid to hide her identity. She said that the girl may not be Giran Naz but her daughter. Moreover, the other two were also tortured before being killed, she added.