Murder: Am I my brother’s keeper?

Man kills brother to be with his wife, gets beheaded by brother and wife.

LAHORE:

Hanjarwal police have arrested a woman after she allegedly had an affair with her brother-in-law and got him to kill her husband for the second time in nine years.

Police officials told The Express Tribune that the case was opened after a headless body, packed in a sack perched on a bicycle, was discovered at Data Hanjar Peer Darbar on February 10. The victim’s fingerprints were sent to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) office in Islamabad, which reported that they belonged to a Nasrullah, resident of Lang Pind, Gujrawala.

A police team was dispatched to Nasrullah’s residence in Muslim Town to get his relatives to identify the body. But the family did not appear interested in coming to the police station and made lame excuses, the police officials said. Zulfiqar, one of Nasrullah’s brothers, was grilled and he indicated that Nasrullah’s wife Mumtaz may be behind the murder.

The police then detained Mumtaz and Khalid, Nasrullah’s younger brother. They were living together at the time in the servant quarters at a house in Muslim Town, police said.

During interrogation, the two confessed to killing Nasrullah, said Sub Inspector Shaukat. Not only that, Mumtaz also told the police that she and Nasrullah had together murdered Saifullah, her first husband and Nasrullah’s older brother.

According to the police, Mumtaz started an affair with Nasrullah after she married Saifullah and the two made a plan to get rid of the older brother. She said that Nasrullah had shot Saifullah and thrown his body in the Ravi. SI Shaukat said that Nasrullah had later been jailed in Kotwali for burglary, and had told the police that he had killed his brother. But because Saifullah’s family had not lodged an FIR, SI Shaukat said, Nasrullah was never arrested for the murder.

But while Nasrullah was in prison for eight years, Mumtaz started a relationship with Khalid, the police said. When Nasrullah returned, they decided to kill him.

According to the confession, Khalid bought five poisonous pills which Mumtaz mixed into Nasrullah’s tea. He lost consciousness. Mumtaz held his legs while Khalid cut his head off with a saw. They washed the body to remove blood stains, packed it in a sack and then left it at Data Hanjar Peer Darbar. The head, later recovered by the police, was thrown in the weeds at an area in Chuhng. The police believe that they beheaded the body because they believed it could then not be identified. The police have also found the murder weapon.

Police believe that on both occasions, Mumtaz was the one to initiate the plan to kill her husband. She would warn her lovers that if they were discovered, there would be dire consequences and hence it would be better if the husband was killed. Mumtaz had three children with Nasrullah and none from her first marriage with Saifullah.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2011.