Late Tuesday night, police authorities raided the house of Provincial Minister for Communication and Works Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran, after three bodies were recovered from a well in the Barkhan area of Balochistan.
A large contingent of police and security personnel headed by SSP Muhammad Asif cordoned off Sardar Khetran’s bungalow and guest house in the Patel Bagh area and conducted a search along with women police officials. Every room, basement, and guest house was searched. Sardar Khetran was not present during the search operation, either.
The raid comes after hundreds of Marri tribesmen staged a sit-in inside the Red Zone of the provincial capital, alongside the three bodies of the members of the Marri tribe who were found killed. Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Quddus Bizenjo had also formed a joint interrogation team (JIT) to probe the recovery of the three bodies.
QUETTA:
Police raided the house of Former Provincial Minister of #Balochistan Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran after three bodies were found in Barkhan district.
Abdul Rahman Khetran's son Released kidnapped children's pictures.#JusticeForMarriFamily#قاتل_سردار_عبدالرحمن_کھیتران pic.twitter.com/7OowpRGPtu— Ahsan Rana (@ImAhsanRana) February 22, 2023
Story of Barkhan murders
The victims were the family members of one Khan Muhammad Marri who was previously employed as a security guard with the provincial minister. He alleged that his wife and sons were being held in the private jail of Sardar Khetran, adding that five more of his children, including his 13-year-old daughter, were still languishing there.
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Prior to the discovery of the bodies, a video clip appeared on social media in which Giran Naz Marri, the wife of Khan Mohammad Marri, was pleading to be freed from Sardar Abdul Rehman’s detention. In the video Giran Naz Marri, while holding Quran, can be seen narrating how Sardar Abdul Rehman Kehtran sexually assaulted them and her 14-year-old daughter.
BREAKING video from Balochistan's Barkhan, in which a woman holding Quran can be seen narrating how Sardar Abdul Rehman Kehtran sexually assault them and her 14 yr old daughter. THIS WOMAN'S BULLET RIDDLED BODY found today in Barkhan pic.twitter.com/1sA9fj9cRr
— خالد (@khalid_pk) February 21, 2023
Later, three bullet-riddled bodies of the woman and her two sons were recovered from a well in Balochistan’s Barkhan district. The bodies had bullet wounds in their skulls and bore marks of torture, which pointed to their cause of death. Their hands and feet were tied with ropes, while the woman’s face was crushed.
The Barkhan murders have since then sparked intense public outrage both in Balochistan and across the country. Social media trends have been running where netizens are demanding justice for the Marri family. Leaders of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) have also condemned the murders and demanded an investigation.
In another shocking turn of events, after the Barkhan murders, the son of Balochistan Minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran, Inam Khetran, released the photos of the abducted children on social media. The pictures posted on Inam Khetran’s social media showed the children including the ones who had been killed and others who are reportedly alive.
Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran denies allegations
On the other hand, Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran has denied all the allegations and termed it a conspiracy. He said was an attempt to defame and remove him as the tribal head of the Khetran tribe. He also accused his son Inam Shah of opposing him.
Furthermore, he said the bodies were recovered one and a half kilometers away from his native village while he was not in Barkhan and had been in Quetta for more than a week.
However, Inam Shah denied his father’s allegations and confirmed that the three people whose bodies were recovered from the well had been kept in his father’s “private jail”.
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