Qandeel Baloch murder case: Pakistani cleric Mufti Qavi sent on seven-day judicial remand

Lahore: A prominent Pakistani cleric, accused of orchestrating the murder of social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch, was on Wednesday sent to jail on seven-day judicial remand.

Judicial Magistrate Pervaiz Khan hearing the case agreed to send Mufti Qavi to jail on judicial remand as his two-day physical remand expired on Wednesday, the Daily Pakistan reported.

The police informed the Multan court that they had completed their investigation into the cleric and did not need to probe any further.

The Investigation Officer was ordered to submit further details of the case to the court in the next hearing of the case on 7 November.

During the last hearing of the case, Qavi maintained that he had not done anything wrong or illegal, whereas Qandeel’s father Muhammad Azeem told the magistrate that his daughter had been murdered at the behest of the cleric.

Qavi is accused of inciting Qandeel’s brothers to kill her after she allegedly “humiliated” him by posting some objectionable pictures with the cleric on social media platforms.

Qandeel, 26, was found strangled to death in her house in Multan’s Karimabad area, some 350-km from Lahore, on 16 July, 2016. Her younger brother, Waseem, confessed to police that he had killed Qandeel for disgracing family’s honour.

Waseem said he drugged Qandeel before strangling her. “She brought dishonour to the Baloch name due to her risque videos and statements posted on social media,” he had said.

“There are other issues as well…Like the maulvi issue,” he had said, in an apparent reference to a controversy in the weeks leading up to her death after Qandeel took selfies with Qavi.

The cleric’s selfies had gone viral on social media, causing a nationwide furore, after which the cleric’s membership of the Ruet-i-Hilal committee and the National Ulema Mushaikh Council had been suspended.