Man confesses to killing teenage daughters

Suspect initially claimed girls had died of electric shock

LAHORE:

Police suspect that two teenage sisters and a mother and her minor daughter found dead in their homes on Friday evening were murdered by their relatives.

Lahore Capital City Police Officer Omar Sheikh told The Express Tribune that SHO Gujjarpura Shahzeb Khan had received a message that two sisters had died of electrocution in a house in the Janipura area.

The SHO said that when he reached the house, about two dozen men and women had gathered there to mourn. When the police enquired about the girls' death, their father, Manzoor, said his two daughters, 15-year-old Kiran and 16-year-old Maryam, had died of electric shock from a washing machine.

The police official said he asked Manzoor to show him the scene of the incident. The father took the police to a small yard at the back of the house where the washing machine was placed. The police officials found that the machine was made of plastic and dry. When they asked the father to show them the clothes that the girls were washing, he failed to do so. On further questioning, he said Kiran's body had been found lying near the machine, while Maryam's body was on the upper floor of the house.

The SHO said that Manzoor later confessed that he had killed the two girls by strangling them. Police took him into custody and sent the bodies to a morgue for autopsy.

Manzoor revealed during interrogation that his son was also involved in the murders along with him.

He stated before SP Civil Lines Safdar Raza Kazmi that he had arranged the marriages of his both daughters with his relatives but they had refused and said they wanted to marry someone else. On this the father and son became enraged and killed them both.

In the other incident, police received a call on the emergency phone number that a woman and her daughter had been found dead in their home in Green Town. The mother, Nadia, was 36 years old, while the daughter was aged three. Both had been slaughtered with a sharp tool. Police took the bodies into custody and started investigation.

SSP Investigation Abdul Ghaffar Qaisarani said Nadia had contracted second marriage and lived in a separate flat, but her husband’s son from his first marriage was enraged over their relationship. He said evidence collected by the police from the scene indicated that the woman’s stepson had committed the murders with the help of his uncle. The police were trying to arrest the suspects.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2020.