QUETTA: Dozens of people in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province started a sit-in on Tuesday after the mutilated bodies of a woman and her two sons were found in a well who they said had been killed by a provincial minister while calling for his arrest.
The protesters maintained the family had been illegally detained in a private jail for the last four years by communications minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran, adding the prison was inside his residence in Barkhan and that he had also ordered the killing of the woman and her two sons.
The protesters brought all three bodies to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, to stage the sit-in in front of the chief minister’s residence.
“We demand the immediate arrest of Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran for the triple murder and want the government to recover five other children of the same family who are still locked inside the jail in Barkhan,” Jahangir Marri, secretary general Marri Ittehad Pakistan, which organized the demonstration, told the media at the demonstration.
He said the husband of the slain woman, Khan Muhammad Marri, was hiding since he feared for his own life after Khetran threatened him with dire consequences a few years ago.
“The chief justice of Pakistan should intervene in the matter to save the lives of five other innocent children,” he continued.
Last week, the slain woman, Giran Naz, said in a video statement that Khetran had detained her along with her sons in a private jail at his residence. She requested the Pakistani authorities to take action and secure the release of her family while holding the Holy Qur’an in her hands.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province in terms of landmass, is inhabited by hundreds of tribes which are led by chieftains who are frequently accused of depriving their people of basic facilities.
The Balochistan administration decided to form a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the triple murder case and arrest the culprits involved in the crime.
“Chief Minister Balochistan Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo has ordered the inspector general Police to form a JIT,” the provincial government’s spokesperson Farah Azeem Shah told Arab News. “The government will soon get to the bottom of this case.”
The Balochistan police raided Khetran’s residence on Tuesday, though it did not make any arrests after an hours-long search operation.
Meanwhile, the provincial minister described the incident as a “conspiracy” to tarnish his reputation while expressing his willingness to cooperate with the investigators in the matter.
“I have been in Quetta for the last 11 days,” he told Arab News. “The bodies were found on Tuesday. The chief minister has formed a JIT and the heirs of the slain family did not appear before the police to register a complaint against me or my companions.”
Khetran also dismissed reports that claimed he had a private jail at his residence.
The triple murder case led to an outrage on social media where many government officials and rights activists demanded the immediate arrest of the perpetrators of the crime.
Khetran told the local media the allegations had been brought against him within the context of elections this year while blaming one of his own sons, Inam Shah, of being part of the conspiracy to remove him as tribal chief.
Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper said Shah denied the claim while confirming “the three people whose bodies were recovered from the well had been kept in his father’s ‘private jail.’”
