Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The girl Maria who was allegedly burnt alive by five killers in the forests of Murree, but on the other hand it looks that her murder case is far away from justice due to weak investigation and secondly she belonged to a poor family.

The cold blooded murder of Maria shook the entire family as well as whole area. Sadaqat, a motor mechanic and father of Maria, feel fear even by coming out of his house.

After the investigation by Murree Police, the joint investigation team did not try to know that the several paths leads to Maria’s house and lone eye witness, younger sister of deceased Maria, six year old Habiba, was totally ignored by the police during the course of investigation.

The real reason of the murder was the insane affection of Haroon, with Maria, who is the son of Master Shaukat and crossed all the limits for doing marriage with the deceased. Due to same reason Maria left the job from a private school owned by Master Shaukat.

When her parents bluntly refused marrying their daughter with the son of Master Shaukat, the culprits arrived at her home that is situated in the middle of jungle. They knocked the door and dragged out Maria forcefully. Her one sleeper was snared in the threshold of the house.

The police after reaching the crime scene gathered the evidences including her burnt clothes with the help of children instead of saving it. After the constitution of joint investigation team the police had closed the file in the police station.

The team of Daily Times visited Upper Dewal near Murree to find the facts regarding the murder and its investigation. It also visited the residence of Maria and crime scene. The team also talked to minor sister of deceased Habiba, her parents and paternal grandmother.

Habiba who was ill on the day of murder so she did not attend the school, told Daily Times in a scared tone that five persons killed her elder sister. When she was talking to this scribe she was depressed. “First of all they thumped her with iron rods and then they set ablaze her by putting petrol on her. The killers also slapped twice on my face”, she added. The mother of Maria told that there are several paths which reach their home from surrounding mountains and the aliens only know one way, whereas it is not difficult for the native people to use any of the trails.

The father of Maria, Sadaqat told Daily Times that when his daughter was killed, he was away from home as he went on opposite mountains to attend a funeral. “When she was taking her last breaths, my relatives phoned me and I reached within half an hour”, he added.

“Maria told me that Master Shaukat and his family members flamed her”, he said, adding that when they took Maria to a local hospital, where Dr Ruqia was on duty. She gave her a injection after very long obscuration and told him to take her to Islamabad. On the occasion his tongue was trembled due to glut of sorrow and he could not continue his narration.

He said that when police reached, they collected all the evidences with the help of children and put them in a bag. They found a bottle about which the police thought might be it contained the petrol, but as a matter of fact the murderers took the petrol and matchbox with them while fleeing the crime scene.

He said that the police have taken heavy bribe from the culprits and it is not taking interest in the case. On response to a question Sadaqat told the Daily Times that his daughter was teacher in the school of Master Shaukat for two years and she left the job.

Master Shaukat conveyed me a message through other people that he wanted to marry his son with Maria, but he did not say it directly. It was one sided love as if his daughter had some affection for the son of Master Shaukat, she never leave the school.

When Daily Times contacted the investigation officer of the case Sub Inspector Mazhar Ikram he said that he did fair investigations of the case but since it has been transferred to Lahore, police had closed the investigation. Now the entire matter is with the JIT. When SHO Sana Ullah Khan was contacted his mobile phone was switched off.

When the crime scene was inspected it was revealed that the villagers did not know about the murder as the forest was thick.

The uncle of Sadaqat Muhammad Faraz told this reporter that on the day of incident, they went to Phagwari village as their relative died on that day. First of all his daughter in law heard the hue and cry of Maria then she informed her husband. When he reached there, his wife stopped him to go inside the room as Maria was there without cloths. His wife called a woman, who was living in neighbourhood.

The renowned lawyer Hashmat Habib said while talking to this reporter that the last statement of the deceased when she was taking her last breaths is so much significant that the court cannot throw it.

He said that in the case of Maria, the only eyewitness of the case is six year old Habiba who is the main strength of the case.0

There are many questions which are yet to be answered to resolve the case like who informed the killer that Maria was alone at her house, why the culprits took him to the jungle as they could ablaze her at her home, where is petrol and matchbox, why police did not record the statement of neighbours . On the dead body there were some sign of teeth biting, did the culprits carry out the violence before putting fire to her.