Blind rage: Man kills niece, 8, after row with her parents

Accused took his niece to a sugarcane field and strangled her after arguing with her parents.

FAISALABAD:

A man on Monday strangulated his niece over a family rift in Jaranwala, police said.

They said that Muhammad Azam had killed eight-year-old Mehar Tariq after an argument with his brother Muhammad Tariq.

Rafiq Ahmad, a relative of the two brothers, said Azam and Tariq had married two sisters in village 22-GB 15 years ago. He said Azam’s wife had recently left him and moved in with her parents.

“Azam believed that Tariq’s wife had instigated his wife against him,” Ahmad told The Express Tribune.

He said that Azam went to Tariq’s house on Friday and requested the couple to help him bring his wife back. “But Tariq’s wife refused to be involved in the endeavour in any manner,” he said. Ahmad said Azam had an exchange of harsh words with Tariq and his wife. “He then took Mehar to a sugarcane field and strangled her,” he said.

Jaranwala Saddar Station House Officer (SHO) Malik Tariq said they had arrested Azam and launched a probe into the murder.

“In the preliminary investigation, Azam has confessed to killing his niece. He said he had killed Mehar in order to take revenge from her parents as they had refused to help him bring his wife back,” the SHO said.

He said the girl’s body had been handed to her parents after an autopsy at the Jaranwala tehsil headquarters hospital.

According to the medical report, the girl’s body also showed torture marks.

“The doctors in the postmortem report have confirmed signs of torture on Mehar’s body. The cause of death appears to be suffocation due to strangulation,” SHO Tariq said.

He said the forensic laboratory in Lahore had also been approached to corroborate the cause of death.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2014.