A local court in Islamabad on Monday extended the physical remand of prime suspect Shahnawaz Amir in the Sarah Inam murder case, for three more days.
Senior journalist Ayaz Amir’s son Shahnawaz allegedly killed his wife Sarah at home after a row over a family issue on September 23.
Shahnawaz — who was detained by the police from a 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. The couple was married for just three months.
The next day, a trial court approved the arrest warrants of Ayaz Amir and his former wife Sameena Shah, as the two were nominated as suspects by Sarah’s family. However, the court granted Sameena an interim pre-arrest and directed her to join the probe, while Ayaz Amir was discharged from the case on the basis of “no evidence” against him in the murder.
In the police report registered following the murder, an additional clause of Section 109 (punishment for abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code was added at the request of Sarah’s uncles — Colonel (retd) Ikram and Zia-ur-Rahim — who have blamed Ayaz Amir and his former wife for their niece’s murder.