Horrific: Woman dies, kills her children

MULTAN: A woman and her children died on Sunday in a suicide-filicide case. Police said the woman had mixed pesticide in the food and had eaten it and served it to her children.

Muhammad Ali, a resident of Rangpur, Muzaffargarh district, returned home late on Saturday night. His wife Fauzia had argued with him about it. She then mixed pesticide in food and ate it and served it to her three children. They were taken to the Muzaffargarh District Headquarters Hospital from where they were referred to Nishter Hospital in Multan.

Nafeesa Begum, a neighbour, told journalists that Ali had a second wife, a widow he had married a year ago. She said Fauzia and Ali would often argue about this because she had apparently not consented to the second marriage. She said that Fauzia had wanted Ali to divorce his second wife but he had refused. Police said Fauzia, 35, and her children, five-year-old Hamza, two-year-old Muzammil and one-year-old Nadia died at Nishtar Hospital on Sunday. They said her family had stopped Muzaffargarh police from investigating the matter and did not allow them to take the bodies for post-mortem examination.

Muhammad Ali said, “I was a dutiful husband…I fulfilled my responsibilities due to Fauzia and our children…My religion allows me to take a second wife and no one can deprive me of the right.” He said Fauzia had committed suicide and killed their children because she was angry about his second marriage. “She had no right to do so.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2016.