Noor Mukadam murder: Court extends Zahir Jaffer’s physical remand by two days – Press Release

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Zahir Jaffer, the prime suspect in the murder of Noor Mukadam, while being brought to court, on July 26, 2021. — Twitter
Zahir Jaffer, the prime suspect in the murder of Noor Mukadam, while being brought to court, on July 26, 2021. — Twitter
  • Islamabad court extends physical remand of Zahir Jaffer, the main suspect in the murder, for two more days.
  • Police produces primary suspect in court and seeks an extension in his custody for futher investigations.
  • Zahir will now be produced in court on August 2.

ISLAMABAD: A local court in Islamabad on Saturday extended the physical remand of Zahir Jaffer, the main suspect in the Noor Mukadam murder case, for two more days.

The police produced Zahir in court and sought an extension in his custody for further investigations.

The court granted the police a two-day extension for Zahir’s custody and directed them to produce the suspect in court on August 2.  

Zahir’s last court appearance

When Zahir was last brought to court, he was remanded into the police’s custody for three days.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the judge asked what the prosecution had to say. Public prosecutor Sajid Cheema said that CCTV camera footage of the incident had been acquired and suspect Zahir had to be taken to Lahore for a forensic exam of the CCTV footage.

For the purpose, the public prosecutor requested the court to grant an extension in Zahir’s remand for another three days.

The lawyer of the suspect, meanwhile, argued that if any forensic exam was to be done, it could be done by taking photos. Weapons and mobile phones had already been recovered, so no further physical remand is required, the lawyer contended.

The plaintiff’s lawyer said that the suspect has to be taken to Lahore. “If a photo was enough, we would not have asked for [the] remand,” he responded by saying.

The public prosecutor said that even in the case of Usman Mirza, they had taken all the suspects to Lahore. “We want to take them to Lahore so that we can find out if the video is edited,” he explained.

The court, after arguments from both sides, granted a three-day extension in the remand. 

Polygraph test of suspect

A day earlier, the Punjab forensic lab conducted Zahir’s polygraph test.

Sources told Geo News that experts at the lab asked the suspect 20 questions. They said that the lab also conducted a forensics analysis of the CCTV footage of the incident.

The sources said that before the test, Zahir kept on “misguiding the officials by making excuses”, adding that he had also “acted as if he had fainted”.

They said that Zahir Jaffer was “behaving abnormally” during the test.

The murder

Noor, 27, was murdered in the federal capital on July 20, in the city’s F-7 area, according to police.

She is the daughter of Shaukat Mukadam, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to South Korea and Kazakhstan.

The Islamabad police arrested Zahir on the night of July 20 from his house where, according to Noor’s parents, he killed her with a sharp instrument and severed her head.

The gruesome incident sparked a nationwide campaign seeking justice for her, with #JusticeforNoor becoming a top trend on Twitter.

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