Noor Muqaddam’s murder: ‘Going to the incident, I got goosebumps’

It was Tuesday evening. The next day was Eid Al-Zhaa. I was busy preparing when I came to know from a fellow reporter that a woman has been killed in Islamabad around 10:30 pm.

At the time, I didn’t realize how big of a news story this was because murders happen all the time and we don’t usually cover individual murders.

It was later discovered that this was no ordinary murder. The deceased was the ambassador’s daughter and she was killed in a very gruesome manner, someone killed her with a sharp instrument and severed her head.

After hearing this I felt that I should do a story, it is a social issue and it will get people’s attention. Only then did I contact the police as it was necessary to get more authentic information. After confirming with the police, quickly created a short story and sent it.

Till then I did not realize the seriousness and sensitivity of the incident. Yes, the murder of a young girl was regrettable and when it was found out that the girl was killed by her friend, the question arose as to what kind of friend stabbed her and that too in such a cruel manner. It could have been imagined in a scene from a Hollywood horror movie, but it was hard to imagine that it actually happened.

The story and the incident had gone viral on social media till the next day, Eid. Diplomatic circles also came forward in support of Shaukat Moghaddam on the issue. Just thinking about the manner in which the murder was done is chilling. It had become a high-profile murder in Islamabad. An FIR was also registered which revealed more details about what Noor’s father saw in that room.

I was asked how it felt as a woman covering the event from day one. But as a journalist, having seen many such cases of courts and crime, the heart has become a little hard. But there was an opportunity to see this case very closely. So the emotions were also somewhat different.

For me, this case became more than a daily news story when I went to the house where the horrific incident took place to report. Seeing that house in F Seven in the posh sector of Islamabad, I felt a strange uneasiness and that scene started rolling in front of my eyes.

I saw the house where the murder took place, I saw the gate from where he tried to leave, I saw the window from which Noor jumped and tried unsuccessfully to save his life. I also saw the passageway that the Therapy Works people accessed via a ladder.

Coincidentally, among all the media representatives, I was the first journalist to find this house. When I saw the building, I felt for the first time the horror that was camped there, as if there was a demon telling me what had happened there.

A big brown gate with a newspaper hanging on the door. It was five o’clock in the evening and the newsboy had placed it at the door, but no one had come to pick it up. Just inside the gate was the guard’s cabin. CCTV footage shows that Noor came to save her life to go out on the road but was locked in a cabin by the guard at the behest of the accused Zahir Jafar. If only one door was too late to open, she might have been saved.

Looking inside from the main gate of the house, there was a wooden staircase in front. Looking at the upper terrace, the window curtain of the front room was broken, from which it was estimated that the therapy workers had reached the terrace with the help of this ladder and tried to enter through the window because the lounge door was not visible. was opened

Even that half-hung and torn curtain was telling its own story about what happened there. In the whole case, the defense lawyer was inquiring that there was no eyewitness to the murder. If this curtain could talk, maybe it would tell a story.

Looking further, there was an outer air conditioner installed under the window of the adjacent room, so the mind told the information of the police that they had obtained from the CCTV cameras installed in the house that Noor Muqaddam had saved his life. He also jumped from the window of the room and went around in front of his eyes.

Staying there, a movie of the whole incident started playing in my mind. Meanwhile I thought for a moment that someone had actually jumped from the side room upstairs and down to the watchman’s cabin and someone had dragged him inside. In reality, there was nothing there at that time, but scenes from the CCTV footage were playing before my eyes.

At that time, I felt that I was looking around the house, the walls, the window, the cabin were all making sounds as if they were telling the story of the cruelty done to Noor. Someone is peeping through the broken curtain of the living room window, but that was my illusion. Maybe every scene was coming in front of my eyes by going there.

The rooms were sealed and could not be entered, as the police had locked them due to the risk of losing evidence.

I asked SSP Operation Mustafa Tanveer that ‘You went to the room where the murder took place, what was the scene there?’

He said that ‘as a police officer, I have seen many horrible murders in my life, but this is the only murder that I could not eat or sleep for two days after returning from the crime scene.’

After that I recorded my video and came back. I don’t know Noor Muqaddam personally and I don’t belong to this ‘elite class’, but after seeing the CCTV footage and then that house, it was all etched in my mind.

A strange fear was felt when seeing the killer up close for the first time. A person who had no fear in his eyes. The brutal eyes that look at anyone will strike fear and when you know with what ruthlessness this person has killed an innocent girl out of personal grudge, the effect is felt many times more.

Then, when the hearing took place, I had the opportunity to observe the case closely. Being a woman, my heart longed for a speedy decision like millions of Pakistanis, but the law is blind as well as slow. It took four months and a few days, but the decision that most people expected came.

On the day of judgment, seeing the murderer Zahir Jafar, he knew that he had to be sentenced to death because who knew better than him what he had done wrong. When the police brought him before the judge, he was just staring at the judge with teary eyes. He stared at the judge for ten seconds, after which the police took him away.

The killer was a few steps away from me, but the horror that was in him at that moment was clearly felt even from a few steps away. A ‘literate’ and wealthy scion stood before me with a spotty face. I kept thinking that the mistake was his, but this society also needs to look into its neck or not. Did we miss something in his behavior before the murder that could have saved us from this tragedy, at least one life?