Former PML-F leader Saira Naseer was killed by her own son, police say

Hyderabad SSP claims Fahad hit Saira with a pestle resulting in her death

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad police claimed on Thursday to have unraveled the puzzle surrounding the murder of a woman whose remains were found in a completely burnt car on December 7. Without substantial incriminating evidence, Hyderabad SSP Peer Muhammad Shah revealed at a press conference on Thursday that slain Saira Naseer was killed by her son Fahad Shah.

According to the SSP, Saira, who was also a former women wing leader of the Pakistan Muslim League - Functional, was killed with a pestle by her son. "He [the son] struck her over the head with a pestle. She instantly fell unconscious and started bleeding," the officer said, adding that she eventually died from the injury. Interestingly, the pestle was recovered from the kitchen of her bungalow in Defence Phase II in Hyderabad around 20 days after the incident.

Saira's body was later taken to Hyderabad's outskirts in the Husri area in her car where the vehicle was set ablaze in the dark of night, the SSP claimed.

The SSP, who quoted Fahad while disclosing the manner in which she was killed before being incinerated, hinted that it was not an intentional murder. Fahad started weeping while narrating the incident to the police, the officer said, adding that he initially thought his mother had only fallen unconscious.



The SSP described Saira as a dominating woman who had slapped Fahad during a quarrel, prompting him to hit her with the pestle.

"[After being slapped] he left the room and few minutes later came back with the pestle which he hit her with." The SSP said, adding that the 22-year-old son had developed friction with his mother after he had married Sadaf Sarhandhi alias Rabi in June, 2016 who had a five-year-old daughter from her previous marriage.

Saira expelled him from her home last year and he started to live in an apartment in Latifabad with his wife. "She was a dominating lady. She used to beat children. In October she slapped her daughter who also left home," the SSP said, adding that the same month she asked him to return home with his wife.

Insufficient evidence

Narrating the process of investigation with the flair of a raconteur, the SSP shared the inconspicuous leads which the couple left while covering up the murder. The police initially doubted involvement of someone from the family in her murder as they lacked sufficient evidence for the detention of a family member, even for interrogation.



"Zaheer Shah [Saira's ex-husband] sent two text messages to Fahad at 11:30 pm on December 6 but Fahad didn't reply. He told us that he could't reply because he was sleeping at his flat. But the mobile signals showed that he was at his mother's house in Defence," the SSP said pointing out a contradiction in the suspect's statement.

The forensic investigators, he added, found footprints of an abnormal movement of feet in the house that night. Fahad told the police that he parked his car at his mother's house on December 6 evening and left in a rickshaw for his flat and that he came back to Saira's house next morning and left for Karachi with his wife.

The car tracker company's record showed that Saira's Toyota Corolla moved from her house at 2:35am and stopped in the Husri area at 2:54am where it was burnt. "The police have come to know from a shop and a roadside hotel that a man and a woman who were perspiring were seen there drinking plenty of water," the SSP said.

Fahad and his wife later walked for around four kilometres and took a rickshaw from Fateh Chowk in the SITE area. They reached their apartment around 4am and knocked on the door of a neighbour to borrow Rs300 to pay the rickshaw driver, according to the SSP. The neighbour, Muhammad Qasim, who was present at the press conference shared the same story.



"The next day Fahad came to me and returned the Rs300. When I asked him why they came so late in a rickshaw, he said that they were returning from a function and their car stopped on the way home," Qasim said.

The police are awaiting Saira's DNA report. The murder's FIR was lodged on the complaint of Saira's daughter. The SSP said the couple will be produced before a court today (Friday) for their physical remand.