April 22, 2025
By Iqra Manzoor
LAHORE
A man accused of the murder of his former wife and her two brothers remains at large as the police investigation trudges on, and the family continues their lives in misery. In a brutal incident that took place at Bawa Chak, Faisalabad, Aqsa Bibi, accompanied by her brother-in-law on a motorcycle, returning from the hospital, was intercepted by the accused. Six other men were with him.
They dragged her off the bike and shot her dead… Aqsa had been eight and a half months pregnant at the time.
This brutal murder is not the first tragedy her family has faced. It was just the latest in the string of murders and threats that have taken place in the past. Family sources confirmed to Voicepk that Aqsa’s killing is the result of a prolonged family dispute, rooted in her previous marriage.
The FIR registered in Aqsa Bibi’s case names four individuals: Rizwan Rasheed, alias Jaani; Muhammad Arshad; Ilyas; and Umar Daraz. They are charged under Sections 302 (murder), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
A forced arrangement
The main accused, Rizwan Rasheed, is none other than Aqsa’s former husband. In the FIR, Aqsa’s brother-in-law, Ali Rizwan, the complainant, details that she had been deeply unhappy in her marriage to ‘Jaani.’
He said that Aqsa’s mother had even approached the police for help – after all, there was a police officer in the family. Ali Hassan, the brother of Ali Rizwan, was a police constable assigned to the City Police Officer’s security. Aqsa’s mother pleaded with the police to intervene, telling them that her daughter had been married against her will. The police helped Aqsa Bibi and shifted her to Dar-ul-Aman, where her divorce case with her former husband, Rizwan Rasheed, alias Jaani, was being pursued.
Meanwhile, after enduring months of abuse, Aqsa eventually fled Jaani’s home and sought refuge at a Dar-ul-Aman. She later filed for divorce, which a family court granted. However, Rizwan Rasheed could not let this go and continued to harass her and her family even after Aqsa had been granted legal separation.
Speaking to Voicepk, Ali Rizwan said, “The murder of my sister-in-law, Aqsa Bibi, is not the first tragedy our family has suffered. This all began when Rizwan Rasheed, alias Jaani, forcibly married her about three years ago.”
The first attack
This pattern of violence escalated in May 2023. According to an FIR 804/23 registered at Nishatabad Police Station on May 10, 2023—available with Voicepk—Aqsa’s sister, her husband Abdul Hafeez, and their son were targeted and critically injured in a gun attack by Rizwan Rasheed and his accomplice, Zafar Hussain. Police records reveal that the attack was a direct retaliation for the family’s involvement in pursuing Aqsa’s divorce case in the family court.
“They were on the verge of death after that brutal attack,” said Ali Rizwan. “By some miracle, they survived. But Aqsa was so terrified after the incident that she came to live with us for her safety.”
The FIR of this incident was registered under sections 148, 149, and 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code. It documents the deliberate attempt to kill all three family members, including a child, in an apparent bid to silence them and obstruct the legal proceedings.
The court granted Aqsa a divorce in 2023, and she remarried. Her second husband, Ali Sultan, was Ali Rizwan’s brother and currently resides in Germany.
“Aqsa had been pregnant with my brother Ali Sultan’s child when she was murdered brutally,” said Ali Rizwan. “There were only 15 days left until her due date; she had been experiencing pain, and my brother took her to the hospital. On the way back, she was shot and killed along with her unborn child.”
The second attack
Meanwhile, on May 15, 2024, two of Ali Rizwan’s brothers—Ali Hassan (a police constable assigned to the City Police Officer’s security) and Ali Rehman—were also brutally murdered by Jaani.
“Rehman was on his way to drop Hassan off for duty when they were both gunned down by Jaani,” Rizwan told Voicepk, adding that the three individuals behind the crime —Liaqat Ali, Imran, and Zafar—have in fact been arrested. But despite being the primary suspect, Jaani has not been apprehended.
Professional criminal
Station House Officer (SHO) of Nishatabad, Saqib, provided details of FIR 907/24, which was registered this time following the murders of Ali Hassan and Ali Rehman. However, he confessed to the accused having links with law enforcement.
“Rizwan Rasheed, alias Jaani, is a former constable of the Jail Police,” he reveals. “In fact there are eight to ten criminal cases already registered against him. He has been a proclaimed offender for the last three to four years. The police are trying to arrest him, but we have been unable to trace his location. He had property worth Rs two to three crores, which he recently sold off, while he has a brother living in Dubai,” he said.
Two months after the killing of his brothers, Hassan and Rehman, Ali Rizwan himself received a phone call from Jaani.
He described the incident in an FIR 1377/24 he registered in Nishatabad on 18th of July 2024, under Section 25-D of the Telegraph Act.
“Jaani called me and said that he had murdered my brothers and nobody could do a thing about it,” said Ali Rizwan in the FIR. “He then said to me that if I did not give a statement in court in support of his accomplices, arrested in the Rehman-Hassan murder case, he would murder me too.”
He criticizes the way police have been handling the case.
“Police are complicit with Jaani, which is why he has not been arrested,” he says. “After he killed my two brothers, he was still easily and conveniently able to murder my sister-in-law.”
Yasir, one of the police officials and also a personal security officer to the CPO, responded to these allegations. He clarifies the work the police have done.
“Three of the four suspects in the case have been granted interim bail, and one of them is at large. A special team has been created; forensic teams reached the spot and collected the evidence.”
He adds that he does not know the case details in depth but denies the family’s claim that police were complicit with the accused, stating this was not the reason for Rizwan Rasheed’s prolonged evasion of arrest.
Investigation and Legal Proceedings
Meanwhile, according to Najam-ul-Hassan, the Investigation Officer (IO) for Aqsa Bibi’s murder case, three of the four accused have been granted interim bail, while other close relatives are under investigation under Section 212 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
“The CPO has strictly ordered the arrest of Rizwan Rasheed, alias Jaani, and the police are trying their best to arrest the perpetrator as soon as possible,” he said. “We are checking his phone records to track his phone location. Unfortunately, his phone is turned off, and we cannot trace him yet, but we are trying to trace him as soon as possible. Soon he will be in the hands of the police.”
The FIR registered in Aqsa Bibi’s case names four individuals: Rizwan Rasheed, alias Jaani; Muhammad Arshad; Ilyas; and Umar Daraz. They are charged under Sections 302 (murder), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
“Aqsa Bibi’s death is another brutal killing carried out by Jaani and his accomplices,” Bilal Anwar Gujjar, the lawyer in the Hassan and Rehman case. “When Aqsa got married to Jaani, he wanted to sell her property, but she refused and eventually divorced him. Now Jaani, along with his accomplices, has committed this terrible crime.”
He blames the police,, saying it was their failure to arrest Jaani that led to Aqsa’s murder.
“She had repeatedly sought protection from law enforcement, but no security was provided,” he regretted. “The City Police Officer has not even issued a single statement regarding this matter, even though the investigation has begun.”
Despite several attempts by Voicepk to contact CPO Sahibzada Bilal Umar for a statement, the requests were denied.
Gujjar also expressed grave concern for the safety of the victims’ family:
“The family cannot even appear in court due to continuous threats. No security has been extended to them so far.”
Plea for Justice and Protection
“We have been pleading with City Police Officer Sahibzada Bilal since last year to arrest Rizwan Rasheed Jaani and to provide us with security, but nothing has been done,” says Rizwan. “We visited his office multiple times, yet he never paid attention to our appeals. Instead, the police have only offered us hollow consolations. The blood of Aqsa Bibi is on their hands. We had no personal enmity with anyone. It was their own constable—my brother—who was murdered, and still, they chose silence over justice.”
While Rizwan pleads for security for his family and himself, it can be seen once again that Aqsa Bibi was yet another woman failed by the system.