Noor Mukaddam case: Islamabad police dispel reports of weak evidence

Islamabad (HRNW) The Islamabad police have held a meeting to review the “progress of trial” of Noor Mukaddam murder and issued a statement in an attempt to dispel ‘misinterpretations’ that evidence against Zahir Jaffer, the prime suspect, was weak.

The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police issued a rare statement on Twitter to set the record straight after the meeting on Tuesday under the Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP) and attended by the DIG Operations, SSP investigation, SP investigation, DSP Legal, and the Investigation Officer of the case. The chief prosecutor was also present.

The meeting came a day after the defence lawyer completed the cross-examination of the Investigation Officer (IO), who confirmed that the suspect’s fingerprints weren’t found on the knife seized from the crime scene, nor were there any bloodstains on his pants.

The statement issued at the end of the ICT Police meeting said that the IO was only asked yes-no questions and it led to the whole proceeding being “misinterpreted in some media reports.”

“During [the] cross-examination of the investigation officer, questions were asked from the IO which he answered very briefly as the IO was asked to answer in Yes or No.”

The statement said that answers must corroborate with the facts of the case file.

The ICT police explained that while the IO did say that the pants of the accused were not stained with blood, it was Zahir Jaffer’s shirt that was stained with the blood of the victim, Noor Mukaddam.