Noor Mukadam murder: Zahir Jaffer’s physical remand extended by two days

ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court in Islamabad today (Saturday) extended the physical remand of Zahir Zakir Jaffer, the main suspect in Noor Mukadam’s murder case, for two more days.

The police produced Zahir Jaffer in the court of Judicial Magistrate Shoaib Akhtar following the completion of his three-day remand. The court extended suspect’s physical remand after the prosecution asked for more time to investigate “new details and characters” found in CCTV footage.

During the court proceedings, the state prosecutor asked the court for a three-day extension in Jaffer’s physical remand. The complainant’s counsel argued that “new details and characters” were found from CCTV footage, which requires more investigation and thus the extension was sought.

Jaffer’s counsel, however, opposed the extension request and questioned the need for further physical remand when a polygraph test (lie detector test) was already conducted.

The court accepted the extension request and remanded Jaffer for two more days to police custody for further investigation. The police were ordered to produce the suspect before the court on August 2 (Monday).

Polygraph test of suspect

A day earlier, the Punjab forensic lab conducted Zahir’s polygraph test. Sources claimed 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 further 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 case

Noor, 27, daughter of former Pakistani diplomat Shaukat Mukadam, was found murdered at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20.

A first information report (FIR) was registered later the same day against Jaffer, who was arrested from the site of the murder, under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s father.