Noor Mukadam, a 27-year-old and the daughter of former diplomat Shaukat Mukadam, was grisly murdered and beheaded on July 20th, 2021 in an upscale and posh neighborhood of F7/4, Islamabad. Noor’s body was found in the house of Zahir Jaffer, who is the prime murder suspect and an FIR has been registered against him at the Kohsar Police Station.
According to the initial reports, both were friends and Zahir had held Noor hostage for two days before killing her. An Investigation Team was created as soon as the issue started trending on social media and Prime Minister took notice. On July 25th, Zahir’s parents were arrested and the court sent the suspect on remand. On August 21, the court extended Zahir’s physical remand and moved him to Adiala jail. Moreover, on August 10, all suspects in the case were placed on Exit Control List (ECL). On September 11, a major turnout took place as the suspect, Zahir Jaffer confessed his crime and told that he murdered Noor because she refused to marry him.
The case is going on with emerging controversies every day including Zahir Jaffer’s mental health which was further declared ‘stable’ by the doctors at the jail and the fingerprints and the DNA report also place Zahir at the murder scene.
On 24th January 2021, IG Islamabad took a meeting to review the progress of the trial of the Noor Mukadam Case in the context of previous meetings and media reports. The meeting was attended by DIG Operations, Chief Prosecutor SSP Investigation, SP Investigation, DSP Legal and IO of the case. The case took another turn with the statements of the Investigation Officer, which he said during his cross-examination by the defence lawyer Advocate Sikandar Saleem.
He revealed three loopholes during the court proceedings:
- No statements of any neighbor or guard were recorded.
- CCTV footage was also not made part of the investigation.
- No bloodstains were found on the accused’s pants.
Furthermore, the officer said in today’s hearing, presided over by Additional Session Judge Ata Rabbani that Zahir’s presence was not included on the crime scene map and the hair sample taken from the knife, presumed to be of the victim’s, was found to be “not suitable”.
Author: Shiza Safdar
Student of IR at National Defence University