Murder mystery: Woman killed for outing the town’s best kept secret

Shafqat was killed by brothel owners for threatening to expose them.

FAISALABAD:

A gang of brothel owners allegedly tortured and killed a nurse after she threatened to expose their operation on Saturday.

According to police officials Toba Tek Singh nurse Shafqat Bibi was tortured to death when she raised objections regarding a brothel in Faiz Colony. “She said that the brothel was being misrepresented as a motel and that she had known two women who had been beaten and sexually assaulted at the hotel,” said Shafqat’s colleague Mehreen.

“She told me that the women working there were prostitutes and that when she tried to tell people about the operation she had begun receiving death threats,” she said. Shafaqat Bibi was a Christian but converted to Islam and married Riaz Javed against the will of her parents twenty years ago. “After the death of her husband she was living alone in Faiz Colony. She was a hardworking nurse and took a great interest in the welfare of her patients,” said DHQ medical superintendent Aslam Sadiq.  Shafqar Bibi served as nurse in DHQ Hospital Toba Tek Singh for about nine years but in 2009, she resigned from the official job and started a private practice as nurse and lady health worker. “I have been helping her in the clinic for nearly two years and we saw several women who had been abused and all of them mentioned having been to the motel in Faiz Colony,” said Shumaila. “We later found out it was a brothel but we were ordered not to speak up about it because some police officials were also involved in the operation,” she said. Shafqat recently performed two abortions for women who admitted to having been performing sexual favours for money at the facility.

“She was very angry after that and began to tell people about the place. That was when we received threats at the clinic and she was threatened at her home,” Shumaila said.  Shafqar was the only bread winner for her family including a 12-year-old disabled son, Sikandar and three daughters Maria Kashif, Uzma and Lubna, who are all married.

“Her daughter Maria told us that her mother had challenged some of the owners of the establishment. She said Shafqat had treated too many patients from there and told the owners she would tell the police what was happening,” said Inspector Bahadur Noon. “We are searching for the owners of the motel but it has been vacated,” he said.

“Shafqat had been severely tortured because the body bore signs of burns and several cuts. She was eventually strangled to death,” said DHQ hospital Dr Imran Raza. Police officials have implicated five people in the case and are searching for there whereabouts.

The accused include two sisters Naila Pervez and Nasima Perveen as well as Talat, Umer Farooq and Abdul Qadeer. City Police Toba Tek Singh claimed that formal cases have been registered against all the nominated accused persons under Section 302, 148 and 149 PPC. Investigation Officer Naiz Ahmad said that one of the accused persons had been arrested, while efforts were being made to round up the rest.

*Names have been changed to protect identity.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2011.