Police hunt for killer of British woman

Samia Shahid’s husband claims she was killed by her family for ‘honour’

RAWALPINDI/ JEHLUM: Mangla police are looking for a man who is believed to have killed British-Pakistani Samia Shahid in Jehlum last week.

Shahid’s husband has claimed that she was killed by her family for ‘honour’.

While visiting relatives at her native village of Pindori near the Mangla Dam last week, 28-year-old Shahid from Bradford suddenly died. After an initial autopsy she was buried the next day.



However, her husband Mukhtar Kazmi alleged that she had been killed by her family because she had broken off her first marriage with her first-cousin Muhammad Shakeel before marrying an ‘outsider’ Kazmi in September 2014 against the wishes of her parents. After British MP Naz Shah raised the matter, writing a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, police have now arrested Shahid’s father and cousin Mobin.

SHO Mangla Police Station Malik Aqeel Abbas told the media that as per statements of Shahid’s father, she had visited Shakeel’s house before her death. However, when they went to the house to take her back they discovered her dead body with Shakeel missing.

Abbas added that Shahid’s parents took her body to the district headquarters (DHQ) hospital in Jehlum where doctors took samples to determine the exact cause of death. These samples, he said, have been dispatched to the forensic laboratory in Lahore and results are awaited.

Asked about statements from Kazmi calling for an independent autopsy, Abbas explained that police have already registered a murder case on his complaint though he would have to apply for exhuming her body with the local magistrate.



The officer further said that a special police team had been formed to look for Shakeel who has been missing since Shahid’s death.

Earlier in his complaint, Kazmi – who hails from Taxila – had said that he had married Shahid in a civil ceremony in Leeds two years ago. Since then they were living in Dubai. He added that his family had called her to Pakistan claiming that her father was gravely ill.

Kazmi claimed that when Shahid reached her native village she told her husband that her life was in danger. Later, when he could not reach her, Kazmi said her cousin Mobin told him that she had died of a heart attack. He had subsequently named Shahid’s father, her sister Madiha, Shakeel and Mobin in his complaint.

Nisar orders probe

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday took notice of Shahid’s death and ordered an immediate investigation into the matter.



In a statement issued here, he directed the Regional Police Officer (RPO) and District Police Officer (DPO) to probe the matter.

Subsequently, RPO Rawalpindi Wisal Fakhar Sultan Raja along with DPO Jehlum Akbar Mujahid visited the house where Shahid was found dead and the Manglla police station.

In a press statement, the officials said investigations will be carried out on merit.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed the recently established Overseas Pakistanis Commission to look into the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2016.