Mother and daughter found dead at home

Man says family killed by robbers, police not ruling out any suspects.

LAHORE: Two women were found dead in their home in Nawankot police jurisdiction on Sunday.

Muhammad Nawaz told the police that he had found his wife Afzal Bibi, 55, and their daughter Nighat Perveen, 21, dead in the morning. He said that valuables worth Rs150,000 were missing. A first information report was registered on his complaint against unidentified people.

Haji Akram, who is in charge of investigations at Nawankot police station, said that Nighat had been strangled to death while Afzal, who was disabled, had been struck on the head with a blunt object, possibly an iron rod. He said there was no evidence of a robbery and forensics investigators had been unable to find suspect fingerprints at the scene. He said a family dispute had not been ruled out.

Nawaz said in the FIR that his wife and daughter had slept downstairs and he slept upstairs the night before. He said when he woke up in the morning for Fajr, the door leading to the ground floor was locked and nobody answered his knocking. He went to his balcony and asked a passerby named Zafar for help. Zafar told him that the front door to his house was open and he went inside and opened the door at the staircase so Nawaz could get down. That is when they found the bodies of Afzal and Nighat, the latter with a rope tied around her neck, according to the FIR. Nawaz said that tops, bangles, mobile phones and a necklace, all worth about Rs150,000 in total, were missing from his house.

Mumtaz Hussain, a neighbour, said that the area had been busy until late the night before as two events were happening nearby. He said that he had known the family for 15 years and they had never fought with anyone.

Muhammad Ahsan, a relative of Afzal, told The Express Tribune that the family’s financial condition was poor.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2011.