Sources told Dawn late on Wednesday night that levies personnel had recovered three members of Khan Muhammad Marri’s family, including his wife and two children.
Sources said that Granaz, her 17-year-old daughter Farzana and son Abdul Sattar had been recovered from an area near the border of Duki and Barkhan, but two of Mr Marri’s children had yet to be found.
Sources said levies officials conducted raids on a tip-off at an isolated place and recovered the trio. “The woman and her two children have been handed over to the commissioner Zhob,” the source said, adding that they would be reunited with their family after completing legal formalities.
This followed the revelation by a police surgeon, who said that the body of the woman found in Barkhan — whose face was rendered unrecognisable — did not belong to the 40-something year-old wife of Khan Muhammad Marri, but rather a young woman, around the age of 18.
Police surgeon says dead body belongs to young woman; Sardar Khetran taken into custody as jirga gives govt two days to meet protesters’ demands
Dr Ayesha Faiz, who conducted the postmortem examination of the body of the woman brought to hospital from the sit-in, said that it did not belong to a 40 to 45-year-old woman.
“It was a 17 to 18 year-old girl, who was raped and shot in the head thrice,” she said in her postmortem report, adding that the victim was also tortured.
The report suggested acid was thrown on the face and neck of the girl to hide her identity.
Earlier in the day, police arrested Balochistan Minister for Commutations and Works Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran on Wednesday on charges of killing three persons.
“Yes, Sardar Khetran has been taken into custody by police,” Abdul Khaliq Sheikh, Inspector General of Balochistan, confirmed, adding that a special investigation team of senior police officers has started interrogating the minister.
He said police had conducted raids on all suspected places for the recovery of Khan Muhammad Marri’s five children, including four sons and a daughter. The bodies of two boys, believed to be two of Mr Marri’s sons, were recovered from a well in the Haji Kot area of Barkhan alongside the corpse of a woman, who was earlier thought to be Granaz.
Police had raided the residences of Sardar Khetran in Quetta and Barkhan on Tuesday night.“More arrests are expected in the murder case of the woman and her two sons,” the IG said.
A spokesman for Balochistan police said a nephew of Sardar Khetran was arrested during a raid in the Haji Kot area.
Sources said Sardar Khetran was summoned to the Quetta DIG office for investigation and after initial questioning, the authorities concerned decided to arrest him, after which he was taken into custody.
“Sardar Khetran would be produced before a court on Thursday to obtain his remand,” the spokesman told Dawn, adding that an FIR was registered against the minister at the Barkhan police station over the killings. He said the case was transferred to the Crime Branch Quetta for a transparent investigation into the incident.
A special team, headed by Salman Chaudhry, the Commandant of Balochistan Constabulary, has been constituted to investigate the Barkhan killings. Other members of the team include Quetta DIG retired Capt Azfar Mehsar, the Special Branch DIG and Quetta SSP.
The protest sit-in by Marri tribesmen and family members of the Barkhan victims continued on Wednesday in the Red Zone area of the provincial capital. They refused to bury the bodies until Khan Muhammad Marri’s five missing children were recovered and the accused responsible for the killings arrested.
Leaders of different political parties, including Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldani, Mir Naseer Ahmed Shahwani, Ahmed Nawaz Baloch, Shakeela Dehwar and Rehman Baloch, visited the sit-in and expressed solidarity with the protesting family of the victims.
Dr Jamaldani, while condemning the killings, said BNP chief Akhtar Mengal had warned that if Sardar Khetran was not removed from the provincial cabinet, the party would table a no-confidence motion against the chief minister.
Meanwhile, a jirga of different tribes on Wednesday strongly condemned the Barkhan killings and gave the government two days to accept all demands of the protesting Marri tribesmen.
In Balochistan, they say, there is no dearth of unfortunate news. When word got out that the bodies of Khan Mohammad Marri’s wife and two sons had turned up in a well in Barkhan, the grisly news spread like wildfire.
As expected, the bodies of a woman and Marri’s two sons — their coffins shrouded in white — were brought to Quetta the same night as their fellow tribesmen settled down for a protest on Zarghoon Road, in the city’s Red Zone.
This is where the chief minister and governor’s official residences are situated, and it is where everyone — from the families of the disappeared to protesting teachers and even parliamentarians — gathers to make their voices heard.
Like other protests before it, the demonstration against the killing of the three Marri tribe members drew in people from all walks of life.
Background interviews suggest that the story behind the Barkhan tragedy is one of betrayal. Khan Mohammad Marri used to be a bodyguard for Abdur Rehman Kethran.
However, he was forced to flee the district when the sardar supposedly ordered him to become a witness against his own son, Inam Shah, as the two had fallen out with each other. His refusal meant his death, which is why he fled the province.
After his escape, the sardar allegedly illegally confined Marri’s wife, Granaz, and his seven children, in his private jail.
In recent weeks, a video of the wretched Granaz had gone viral on social media. Holding the Holy Quran, she could be seen pleading for help. Soon after the video came out, however, the bodies of a woman and Marri’s two sons turned up. The protesters, including the Marri family, hold Sardar Kethran responsible for the killings, a charge he denies.
On Wednesday, the bodies of the three victims lay in two ambulances parked along a blocked Zarghoon Road.
Under a vast canopy, carpets are laid out for protesters to sit. There are banners and placards decrying the sardar and state authorities for their failures. Alongside the men who have gathered here, there is also a strong contingent of women and children, who have come to show solidarity with the victims’ family.
The Marri tribe had been demanding the release of the victims ever since their video went viral, Mehruddin Marri, a leader of the All Pakistan Marri Ittehad, tells me. “No one, including the courts and the media, paid heed,” he goes on to lament. “This is why the sardar had them murdered.”
Like him, others at the gathering are angry too. “The raids at his house were a mere drama,” exclaims Jahangir, general secretary of the Marri Ittehad.
As I approach some of the protesters individually, they all seem to have the same demand: arrest Sardar Abdur Rehman Kethran.
Hajira, a young university student, has been at the protest since Tuesday night. “I have come here so that justice prevails, so that such tragic incidents against women and their children may not take place again,” she tells me when I ask what brought her to this demonstration. “I have come here so that the injustices against the Baloch may stop; I have come here to hope against hope, to demand the arrest of Sardar Kethran, because he has taken law into his own hands, despite being a minister in the provincial government; and I have come here to raise voice against the injustice, which is prevalent in our society.”
As I speak to the protesters, I see that the crowds at the sit-in are continuing to swell. It is evening by this time, and some people are buying tea from local vendors — perhaps realising that they will be there for a while.
Before leaving, I head towards the ambulances to pay my respects to the victims. There is an eerie silence in the evening air; in the distance, a man on a loudspeaker demands justice be done with Sardar Kethran.
Later at night, it was reported that Granaz had been recovered alive along with two of her children, while the body of the woman found in the well belonged to someone much younger, around 17 or 18.The question still remains, though; will there be justice for the coffins draped in white?
