DUBAI // A Pakistani singer who stabbed the drummer in his band to death in 2009 has been jailed for 10 years after he was extradited from his home country.
Dubai Criminal Court heard that the singer, N J, and his band were performing at a party in June 2009 in a room in their labour camp in Jebel Ali.
A man entered the party and when the drummer did not welcome him, N J, 27, quarrelled with the victim, H K.
He asked the drummer: “Don’t you know who this man is?”
H K, was offended, so stopped the music and left the party to return to his room to sleep.
Despite the efforts of other men in the party to calm him down, 20 minutes after the altercation, N J took a knife from the kitchen and walked to the victim’s room.
N J attempted to stab him but missed, so he chased him onto a third floor stairway where he stabbed him in the heart, killing him instantly.
The singer then left his victim in a pool of blood, returned to his room and changed out of his bloody clothes.
He travelled to Al Aweer, where some of his friends helped him escape to Abu Dhabi then on to Oman and from there to Pakistan.
Several of their colleagues interrogated by police confirmed that N J had a dispute with the victim and killed him.
After more than four years of investigations, police managed to contact N J’s brother, who provided police with his address in Pakistan, from where police extradited him.
N J was found guilty of a premeditated murder charge. After his jail term, he will be deported.
salamir@thenational.ae