An FIR has ben registered against 12 suspects in the murder of Dr Ajmal Sawand, who had returned to his hometown after earning a PhD from France but was gunned down earlier this week.

The murder was initially linked to the issue of an old honor killing dispute, but the FIR says Ajmal Sawand was killed for his refusal to pay extortion money.

Dr Sawand was an assistant professor at IBA Sukkur’s computer science department.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of the victim’s brother Muhammad Ashraf Sawand under sections 365A, 384, 147, 148, 149, and 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act.

Aijaz Ali, Farman, Rano, Mendhro, Bakht Ali, Wahid Bakhsh, Sefal, Ghulam Mustafa, Ameer Bakhsh, Muhammad Ali and two unidentified suspected have been named in the case. All of them belong to the Sundrani tribe.

The FIR, a copy of which was obtained by Aaj News, says around 15 days ago Ajmal refused to pay Rs2 million in extortion to Aijaz Ali Sundrani and he threatened him with dire consequences.

The FIR quoted Aijaz Ali Sundrani as telling Sawand that he had made multiple demands for the money and that if Sawand continued to refuse, he would kidnap him.

On April 6, Ajmal and his brother were traveling to their village at around 7am when Aijaz with some other armed assailants on motorbikes stopped their Toyota Corolla car registration number BKX-378, the FIR reads.

After stopping the car, Aijaz said to Ajmal “we told you to give us money. You did not” and then he shot at Ajmal, the FIR read.

Police launched a crackdown against the Sundrani tribe a day after the murder, but no arrest has been made so far.

The police operation involves the demolition of Sundrani homes in the village Sardar Khan Sundrani.

“The operation will continue until the suspects are arrested. We are using heavy machinery. The suspects have fled but we are damaging them financially,” Kashmore SSP Irfan Ali Samo told reporters on Saturday.

The SSP described Ajmal Sawand’s murder as a ‘tragedy’ and said that the culprits will be brought to justice.

Ajmal Sawand’s journey

“Forget positions, they do not matter, I went to Paris on scholarship even though I was a mediocre student. I taught foreigners in the French language wearing this outfit (Pakistani attire). They were paying me Rs 30,000 per hour, but I left France because I wanted to teach my own people,” Dr Ajmal Sawand says in a video that has now gone viral.

Sawand received his primary education from Mehran Public School Kandhkot.

He then enrolled at Cadet College Larkana earning the Matriculation and Intermediate certifications.

Ajmal secured admission to the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Jamshoro and completed his Bachelor in Engineering (B.E) in Software Engineering.

Then, he acquired his master’s degree in Computer Science (Web Intelligence) from University Jean Monnet Saint Etienne.

Ajmal completed and defended his PhD on May 11, 2015, from Paris Descartes University.

He was married with two sons Rehan and Aran. His wife is pregnant with another child.