Pakistani-American ‘raped, beheaded’ former ambassador’s daughter

A Pakistani-American man accused of raping and beheading his girlfriend, the daughter of a former ambassador, went on trial Wednesday within the capital Islamabad.

The brutal homicide of Noor Mukadam, 27, in July sparked protests throughout the nation and requires reform to Pakistan’s gender violence legal guidelines.Zahir Jaffer, 30, from a rich industrialist household, has denied killing Mukadam.”The trial has formally started. Our first witness was examined today and we will produce five more witnesses at the next hearing”, Shah Khawar, a prosecution lawyer advised AFP outdoors the court docket in Islamabad.The 27-year-old was attacked after refusing a wedding proposal, trying repeatedly to flee Jaffer’s sprawling mansion in an upscale neighbourhood in Islamabad however blocked every time by his employees, a police report stated.Jaffer raped and tortured her with a knuckle duster earlier than beheading her with a “sharp-edged weapon”, it added.”Her life could have been saved had the accomplices acted otherwise,” the report stated, which was introduced to the court docket in a earlier listening to.ALSO READ: Pakistan man burns alive 7 members of the family after daughter marries in opposition to his wishesEleven others have additionally been charged in connection to the homicide, together with a few of Jaffer’s family employees, his mother and father, and others who have been allegedly requested to hide proof.Mukadam’s homicide acquired nationwide consideration resulting from a rising, youth-driven girls’s rights motion within the nation the place victims of violence are sometimes discouraged from talking out and blamed for the abuse.According to a authorities survey performed between 2017-18, 28 % of ladies aged 15-49 have skilled bodily violence in Pakistan. However, consultants imagine the determine is predicted to be larger due to underreporting.The homicide of Mukadam, whose father served as Pakistan’s ambassador to South Korea and Kazakhstan, is without doubt one of the most high-profile circumstances of violence in opposition to girls because the authorities launched new laws designed to hurry up justice for rape victims.It is typical for court docket circumstances to pull on for years in Pakistan, however prosecutor Khawar stated he anticipated the trial to be concluded inside eight weeks.Prime Minister Imran Khan has pledged that the accused wouldn’t escape justice for being a part of the Pakistani elite and a twin nationwide.WATCH: Pakistan claims to have ‘detected’ Indian submarine in its waters