Prime suspect Rizwan Ayaz Khan testified in a local court on Friday that he had not murdered Abdullah’s mother Haleema. He added that he was forced by the police to confess to the crime.
“I did not murder Haleema. I was forced to confess. [the police] said they will harm my wife and daughter if I don’t confess,” he said in the court. The court remanded Rizwan in judicial custody.
Speaking to the media after the hearing, Rizwan said that if anything happened to him the SSP and the investigation officer should be held responsible. He added that the Haleema’s stepson Chaudhry Ansar had killed her over a property dispute.
Rizwan who was arrested by police Wednesday night confessed to killing Haleema, lost boy Abdullah’s mother, over a fight they had over some money, police said.
A week after the body of lost boy Abdullah’s mother was found from an apartment in Delhi Colony, officials of the Frere police station arrested the man suspected of her murder on Wednesday from Super Highway.
Police claimed that Rizwan’s hideout was located through a mobile phone call. The accused had on May 25 dropped the deceased, Haleema’s three-year-old son Abdullah, at the Edhi Centre claiming that he had found him at Sea View.
It was on June 1 that police located Haleema’s body from an apartment which was discovered to have been handed over to her through Rizwan – a real estate agent.
The police had identified the suspect from the Edhi Centre’s CCTV camera footage. A day later police officials arrested Rizwan’s wife Sonia from their house located in Mehmoodabad. She was sent on a nine-day physical remand by a judicial magistrate on June 4.
Sonia alleged that Rizwan had asked her to leave with him but he fled after she refused. The wife during interrogation disclosed that Rizwan had brought Haleema over to their place for some time but later got her an apartment in Delhi Colony.
A resident of Qayyumabad, Haleema was reported to have left the area for Multan with Abdullah and her husband, Iqbal, three months ago. According to a neighbour, who spoke to Faisal Edhi after Abdullah’s pictures were shown on television channels, the family had left for Iqbal’s medical treatment.
Haleema’s brother – also the one who identified her body – confirmed the neighbour’s story and informed that Iqbal had passed away during treatment after which she had come back to Karachi.
However, on June 5 Muhammad Iqbal, claiming to be the deceased’s husband, reached the Edhi Centre in Karachi to get Abdullah’s custody. According to the man, he had divorced Haleema a few months ago after they had been married for 10 years.
Muhammad Iqbal approached the court for Abdullah’s custody on Thursday. The court summoned officials at the Edhi Centre on June 11. “My son is at the Edhi Centre. I want his custody,” Abdullah wrote in a request to the court. “Abdullah’s mother is dead. In that case I (the father) am his legal guardian.”
Authorities at the centre, however, did not hand over the boy’s custody to the man since the child did not recognise the man. The matter would now be taken to court and any decision regarding Abdullah’s custody can only be expected after the court ruling.
