Woman allegedly kills young stepdaughter, flees

Girl’s father says his wife used to torture his 12-year-old daughter

ABBOTABAD: A woman killed her stepdaughter in the Galiyat region and fled, local police said late on Saturday.

Officials said that Irshad and his 12-year-old daughter Urooj lived together with the girl’s stepmother Nazma in Galdhoke village in Bagnother.

On Saturday, Irshad stepped out of the house to tend to some work. When he returned late at night, he saw the body of his daughter who had been brutally murdered while Nazma was nowhere to be found.

He told police that his daughter’s legs had been tied with metal wire while there was blood around her neck.

Irshad called the police who, along with rescue officials, moved the body to the District Headquarters Hospital in Abbottabad for an autopsy.

The father told officials that Urooj’s biological mother had died a few months ago and that he had subsequently remarried. But his second wife did not have a good relationship with Urooj and repeatedly tortured the girl.

While police are still waiting for the hospital to complete the autopsy and present its report, officials at the Bagnother police station said that they have registered a case under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) (premeditated murder in the first degree) and have launched a search for Nazma while they are continuing with other investigations in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2017.