Woman burnt alive in front of children in Mansehra

Police say personal vendetta was motive for gruesome murder

MANSEHRA: A woman was burnt alive in a remote village of Mansehra, the police said on Monday. The motive behind the gruesome murder of a mother-of-three was purported to be an old feud.

According to the police, the suspects were arrested after they were identified by the victim’s son.

Police quoted N*, 9, of Chitta Batta Village as saying that he was sleeping in the same room as his mother Anila Bibi, 26, and his two younger siblings when at around 4am, two armed persons entered their room after scaling the boundary wall of the house.

“When we saw the two intruders fighting with our mother, we ran into the next room and started screaming for help,” said young Naqash.



He went on to say the suspects, whom he identified as Javed and Naseer, both residents of the same village, tied his mother to the bed she was sleeping in and doused her with petrol before setting it aflame.

The suspects then fled the, the boy told the police.

He said the children then went back into the room where their mother was burning alive and attempted to put out the fire, but failed and called relatives for help. They put out the fire and rushed her to hospital, but she already had 80 per cent burn injuries and died as a result of associated conditions.

A doctor who assisted in the autopsy of the woman explained that the woman’s neck bore strangulation marks but the cause of death was burns and suffocation.

The police said the suspects wanted to burn the house down but panicked because of the children’s cries for help.



When asked about a possible motive, police officials said that six months back, the victim’s husband Fayyaz had allegedly murdered Javed’s brother and was on judicial remand in Mansehra District Jail. He said this would suggest that it was a revenge killing.

Saddar police said the two suspects had been arrested and booked for murder.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2017.