Pakistan Zainab murder: DNA suggests suspect in other case was 'innocent'

Pakistani officials say they will investigate allegations police carried out an unauthorised killing of a man wrongly accused of murdering a child.
Police shot Mudasir, accused of killing five-year-old Iman Fatima, in February 2017, saying he tried to escape. However, a BBC Newsnight investigation has uncovered allegations that Iman's real killer is still at large. DNA tests suggest Iman was killed by the same man suspected of murdering another child this month. The rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari earlier this month sparked outrage and protests across Pakistan. Police working on the investigation into Zainab's murder have discovered DNA traces matching those found in seven other attacks on young girls in the same city. Out of the seven attack victims, four - including Iman - were murdered.Until now, police and Iman's family thought her case had already been solved - but her family now believe the real killer is still on the run, while Mudasir was innocent. 'Trying to escape'? Iman Fatima had been playing outside in the street with her five-year-old cousin Adeel. Sitting next to his father, Adeel told the BBC, "The kidnapper made me stand against the wall and took Iman Fatima away. He took her upstairs, put her in a sack and took her away." Adeel's memory of the incident is at times vague and confused but his family say after the abduction, despite his age, he identified the house his cousin had been taken into, and later the man responsible.
 Iman Fatima with her mother The suspect was 21 year-old Mudasir, a factory worker who had moved to Kasur with his family around two years earlier. What happened next is disputed. According to one police version Mudasir was killed resisting arrest. Another senior police officer told the BBC he was taken into custody where he confessed, and then was killed "trying to escape." But in an exclusive interview with the BBC, Mudasir's family said they believed police killed him despite knowing he wasn't the killer because they were not able to find the real culprit.

Human rights groups have criticised police in Pakistan for carrying out what are known locally as "police encounters" - extra judicial killings that are then covered up as incidents where suspects resisted arrest.Analysts say police often carry out "encounter killings" because of the low conviction rate in Pakistani courts.Mudasir's mother Jamila Bibi told the BBC, "I feel as if I have lost everything. They killed my son. The family moved out of Kasur just days afterwards, "No-one in the neighbourhood would even talk to us" Jamila Bibi added tearfully.

source: www.bbc.com