Plea to arrest journalist Ayaz Amir, wife accepted in Canadian national murder case

• Court sends Shahnawaz into police custody for two-day physical remand.
• Turns down request for taking the suspect's fingerprints was rejected.
• Shahnawaz's lawyer says "it was blind murder." 

A local court in Islamabad accepted the police plea seeking approval for the arrest warrants of senior journalist Ayaz Amir and his wife in a case pertaining to the murder of their daughter-in-law, who is a Canadian national.

Senior journalist Ayaz Amir's son Shahnawaz allegedly killed his wife Sara at home after a row over a "family issue" on Friday.

Shahnawaz — who was detained by the police from the farmhouse in Islamabad's Chak Shahzad area for being a suspect in his wife's murder — confessed to committing the crime and said that he "thought" his spouse was having an affair with someone else. 

Shahnawaz presented in court

Today, the suspect was presented before the court of a civil judge, Mubashir Hassan Chishti, where the investigation officer informed him that the suspect "killed his wife in cold blood."

During the hearing, the police requested the court to grant a 10-day physical remand of suspect Shahnawaz for interrogation.

At this, Shahnawaz's lawyer said that it was a "blind murder" so they have no objection to the police's request for remand.

However, he asserted that the case is based on "just allegations" now.

Moreover, the police also filed a petition seeking the approval of arrest warrants for Shahnawaz's parents and taking his fingerprints. 

The court accepted the plea for approval of arrest warrants and also sent Shahnawaz into police custody for a two-day physical remand for interrogation. 

However, the request for taking the suspect's fingerprints was rejected.

"The fingerprints can be acquired from National Database and Registration Authority," the judge said. 

The case

Police registered a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of Station House Officer (SHO) Nawazish Ali Khan on Friday under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The FIR mentioned that the suspect's mother, Samina Shah, called the police on Friday (September 23) to inform them that her son, Shahnawaz, had killed his wife with a dumbbell.

According to the FIR, Shah told the police that her son was in the house and had hidden the body of his wife. Following this, the police raided the house.

In the complaint, the police said that Shahnawaz had locked himself inside his room and when the personnel broke inside, there were blood spots on his hands and clothes.

Once the police got hold of Shahnawaz, he, according to the FIR, confessed to hitting his wife repeatedly with a dumbbell during an argument and then later hiding the Canadian national's body in the bathtub.

The "murder weapon", the FIR quoted Shahnawaz as saying, was hidden under his bed. Police, after examining the dumbbell, reportedly found blood and hair on it. They later sent it for forensics.

The victim's body has been sent to the Polyclinic Hospital for postmortem, the FIR added.