Man kills family to marry lover

GILGIT: Police have arrested a man who had confessed to have pushed his wife and two children into the Gilgit River.

While torrential rains wreaked havoc in Gilgit-Baltistan, Ibrahim pushed his 30-year-old wife Parveen, his six-year-old son and eight-month old daughter into the river on July 29. He then lodged a first-information report with the Gilgit police, claiming that his family had gone missing.

“Our investigations revealed that the man had himself pushed them into the river,” a police official told The Express Tribune on Saturday, adding that Ibrahim had eventually confessed to having committed the crime. Police said that the bodies had yet to be recovered.

In his mid-30s, Ibrahim works for a secret agency and had been posted in Gilgit. He hails from Misgar, a remote village in Gojal.

“Ibrahim had an affair with another woman whom he had wanted to marry. But the customs of his area [Misgar] do not allow a man to have two wives. So he decided to kill his first wife,” a police official said.

Ibrahim has been remanded in police custody for further investigations.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2010.