PTI leaders shielding ‘barbaric criminals’ in KP: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday expressed concern over the sheer negligence of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government and its police for failing to nab the real culprits involved in the murder of a medical student Asma and those involved in other heinous crimes.

Bilawal said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders were shielding barbaric criminals in the province. According to a statement issued by the party secretariat, Bilawal said that the killers of Asma, Sharifan Bibi, minor girl Isma, and student Mashal Khan were still at large due to the backing of some influential people belonging to PTI.

“It appears that PTI has become a party of several blue-eyed people who have come together to protect and guard killers, murderers and even terrorists,” he said. Bilawal further said that a local PTI leader who incited the mob responsible for the barbaric murder of innocent student Mashal Khan had not been arrested even after the passage of nine months.

He said reports have also confirmed that nephew of PTI Kohat president and the identified killer of medical student Asma have fled to Saudi Arabia, which was not possible without the help of the KP government. The PPP chairman pointed out that the killers of Sharifan Bibi and minor girl Asma were also being shielded by influential leaders of PTI in the province.

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday observed that KP police had miserably failed to perform its duties in the Asma rape and murder case in Mardan. The case was heard by a three-member bench, headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar.

The honourable bench questioned why the KP government had not established a forensics laboratory to conduct DNA testing and said, “You are incapable of investigating the matter effectively.”