LAHORE: Zahir Jaffer has been moved to a separate cell after an argument with inmates and was now being kept alone, said Arshad Warriach, the superintendent of Adiala Jail where the prime suspect in the grisly July murder of Noor Mukadam is being held.
Mukadam, 27, was found beheaded at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale F-7/4 neighborhood on July 20 in a case that has sparked public outrage and grabbed media attention unlike any other recent crime against women. Jaffer, who was arrested from the crime scene on the day of the murder, was initially on police remand but moved to Adiala Jail on judicial remand in early August.
Speaking exclusively to Arab News, the jail superintendent said Jaffer, who had been sharing a cell, was moved to a separate space after “arguments” with his cellmates.
“His [Jaffer’s] behavior was not right with his cellmates so now we have put him alone,” Warriach said. “He wasn’t getting along [with them] They said, ‘we don’t want to stay with him,’ he said, ‘I can’t stay with them.’”
Last month, Warraich told Arab News Jaffer was sharing a cell with two other prisoners and being kept on ‘suicide watch,’ while then Punjab minister for prisons Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan had said the accused murderer was not even being allowed a tooth brush over “suicide fears.”
However, Warriach said on Saturday Jaffer was now living alone in a cell, with a police guard deployed outside to watch him 24 hours. He also said the prisoner’s demand for certain rights granted to other inmates had been turned down.
“He has demanded that he be kept like the other prisoners … They can walk in the prison yard, they can get books from the library, they read newspapers, they can watch a TV given by the government … they can get extra things from their home, make tea,” Warriach explained. “He doesn’t have any of these facilities. He only comes out of the cell on the day of hearing.”
Asked if Jaffer had received any legal support from the US Embassy, the jail superintendent said: “Being an American national, Zahir Jaffer was allowed to make a phone call to embassy officials to seek legal assistance, but no such help has come so far.”
Jaffer’s parents — Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamjee — and members of their household staff were also arrested on July 24 for “hiding evidence and being complicit in the crime.”
Warraich confirmed that the parents of the prime suspect had requested for B-class status in prison, which is reserved for inmates who by social status, education or habit of life have been accustomed to a superior mode of living and under which they are entitled to books, newspapers, a 21-inch television along with personal bedding, clothing and food.
Warriach said the parents’ request to upgrade their status had been denied.
“Yes, the Jaffers have moved the court against us for B-class, but we have not entertained any such request until now,” he said, adding that they were being allowed the right to meet “first blood” relatives once a week either at hearings or at the prison, “from behind bars.”
The jail superintendent also denied that any preferential treatment, such as home cooked food, was being allowed to anyone involved in the Noor Mukadam case.
“Home cooked food is not the right of any prisoner,” he said.
Reports that Jaffer was taken to Islamabad’s PIMS hospital after he complained of a headache early last month, that he was receiving home cooked food in jail daily and that he always appeared before the district magistrate bathed and in a fresh set of clothes unleashed widespread condemnation in Pakistan, with social media users, journalists and activists saying the suspect was being given special treatment because he belonged to a wealthy family and was a US national.
Then prisons minister Chohan subsequently ordered prison authorities to stop with “immediate effect” any preferential treatment for Jaffer at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.
“I’ve ordered the jail superintendent that no VIP treatment should be given to Zahir or his family and he should not even be allowed to meet his father who is in another barrack at the same jail,” Chohan said in a phone interview last month. “They are not in jail to celebrate birthday parties.”
