Barkhan triple murder accused ‘confess’ before media in capital

ISLAMABAD: In a strange move, two persons turned up at the National Press Club, called themselves assassins and confessed to killing three people, including a girl, in Barkhan allegedly at the behest of former Balochistan minister Sardar Abdur Rehman Khetran.

At their press conference, they introduced themselves as Inam Shah and Baram Khan and alleged they the former minister pressurised them to kill the girls.

They claimed that they wanted to confess to their crime in public before surrendering themselves to police because, they alleged, the former minister is strong enough to manipulate the case in his favour.

The murders and subsequent discovery of corpses of a woman and two young men from a well in February this year triggered protests and highlighted the issue of illegal prisons. Muhammad Marri, the man whose three family members were murdered, had accused Khetran of keeping his five other family members in a “private jail”.

A police surgeon, after the post-mortem examination of the bodies, had revealed that one of the deceased was a 17 to 18-year-old female. She said that the deceased was raped and tortured before being shot dead.

Later, police arrested Khetran who was granted bail by a judicial magistrate in March.

Khetran denied allegations of involvement in the murders and claimed to be a “peaceful and law-abiding person”.

“Accusations of owning a private prison and the murder of three people is a conspiracy to damage my political reputation,” he said, adding that his house was searched by the previous government. “Had there been a jail, it would have been discovered,” he insisted, “However, if anyone is still in doubt, they can check my house.”

He further said that the allegations were a “sinister attempt” to deprive him of the “right of regional politics”.