His own flesh and blood: Army man strangles five minor kids, hangs self

Father of deceased soldier says his son was upset after divorce

FAISALABAD/ LAHORE: An army man reportedly strangled his five children to death before committing suicide in Chiniot district on Tuesday.

Muhammad Hussain, 35, had recently divorced his wife Sajida Bibi in Moza Dalail Wala.  SHO Abdul Sattar Niazi quoted the father of the deceased as saying that his daughter-in-law had left his son Bahadur Khan’s house three months ago. The latter had been extremely upset ever since.

The father added that his son made several attempts to reconcile with his wife with the help of the elders of the village, but all in vain. Resultantly, he came to our house, along with his children and started living with us.

Last week, Hussain formally divorced his wife, said Bahadur. Still hoping to patch things up, he went to his in-laws’ house and tried to convince them to send Sajida home without making the divorce public.

When he failed to convince them, he asked them to perform ‘halala’ by solemnising the nikkah with his brother. Hussain suggested that she file a divorce after the nikkah and he will remarry her to fulfil the religious requirement, the SHO said.

When Sajida and her parents rejected the idea, he got very upset. Utterly disappointed, he returned home and strangled his five children to death and later hanged himself.

The deceased’s neighbours and relatives informed the police that Sajida often used to leave her children alone after quarrelling with her husband over the phone. The husband was working as a lance naik in the Pakistan Army and was posted in Rawalpindi. He came back home to his hometown for a holiday on December 2.

Hussain’s sister, who is married and lives in the same neighbourhood, used to take care of the children in Sajida’s absence.   Bahadur told the police that when his son failed to come out for morning prayers, as per schedule, he knocked on his door repeatedly. However, there was no answer.

Therefore, his son and some neighbours broke the door down and found Hussain’s body hanging from the ceiling fan, while the children also lay dead. He said there was no blood or any weapon found in the room. The father of the deceased continued that this clearly showed that Hussain murdered his children and later killed himself.

“He strangled his five children, one by one, using a rope as they slept. After killing all of them, he hanged himself from a ceiling fan,” confirmed SHO Sattar.

Sajida and her brother reached the spot and demanded an autopsy of the children. Sajida said that Hussain’s brother could have stopped the father him killing his children, but the former was totally ignorant of the incident.

The murdered children were identified as eight-year-old daughter Iqra, six-year-old Waqas, five-year-old Shehzad, four-year-old Subhan and three-year-old Nouman.

The police have registered a case under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code vide FIR No.357/2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2016.