Ex-husband found guilty of killing Pashtun singer Ghazala Javed

Peshawar: Swat District and Sessions Court found the former husband of Pashtun singer Ghazala Javed guilty of killing her and awarded him two death sentences along with Rs70 million in fines.

Additional Sessions Judge Swat (II) Mohammad Tariq Pervaiz Baloch awarded two death sentences to Jahangir Khan for killing his former wife and her father.

The convict was fined Rs50 million for murdering Javed and Rs20m for killing her father. The judge further awarded Rs1m fine for injuring Farhat, Javed’s sister in the attack.

The handcuffed accused appeared in the court amid tight security and after the sentence was taken back to Peshawar.

Initially the case was registered in Peshawar but after an appeal by the victim’s mother, the case was shifted to Swat.

Javed had married Khan on Feb 7, 2010 but after developing differences, she filed for divorce in 2011.

Khan was opposed to her singing career and wanted her to stop singing. He had threatened her with dire consequences for leaving him.

On June 18, 2012, Ghazala, along with her father, was shot dead in Peshawar by unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle. Initially, Taliban were blamed for her killing.

She had fled from Swat following the Taliban takeover of the area and settled in Peshawar to pursue her music career.