Woman, schoolboy among 5 killed

Five people, including a woman, were killed in separate incidents. Police have arrested six classmates for their alleged involvement in the “murder” of a matric student and registered a case against them. According to the police report, 26-year-old Hasnain Haider was shot dead by some unidentified people at his cattle farm in the jurisdiction of Saddar police station. Police shifted the body to the morgue.

Ali Haider, a matric student, was allegedly lured into attending a “birthday party” by his classmates, Moazzam and Hamza, where “he was shot in the head by the accused Moazzam, Sanaullah, Ghulam Abbas and others”.

However, the police said that the victim died while Moazzam was clearing the chamber of his pistol when a bullet was accidently got fired which resulted in Ali Haider’s death. Nevertheless, the victim’s family insisted that Haider was killed in cold blood by the accused.

Police seized the body of the deceased and arrested six of his classmates. Zahoor Ahmed smashed the head of his sister-in-law, Abida Bibi, a mother of three, with an iron rod. She was rushed to the Allied Hospital where she died of her injuries.

Read Violence against women: a crime, societal failure or mental illness?

Tahir Mahmood and his friend Bilal Nawaz were allegedly shot at and severely injured by suspect Sohail Iqbal and six others on a land dispute in Chak No. 200 RB.

The two were admitted to the Allied Hospital where Tahir Mahmood died. Police handed over the body to his family after the postmortem. Mamoor Hussain, a father of five, was shot dead by unidentified people at his home in Thatta Mukhtar.

In the month of March, a woman was allegedly strangled by her husband and brother in the name of honour in Khurrianwala. The suspected murderers tied a rope around the victim's neck and strangled her. Police recovered the body and launched an investigation after the postmortem.

According to the police report, the 26-year-old victim, a resident of Chak No 534GB, was married to Ali Raza, a resident of Chak No 448GB, eight years ago. The couple had three children. On the day of the incident, Ali Raza, while going on a business trip with his brotherin-law Khadim Hussain, saw his wife with a man. Ali became suspicions of his wife having an affair after which he and Khadim grabbed the victim, wrapped a headscarf and a rope around her neck and strangled her.

The alleged murderers escaped the crime scene. Jaranwala police recovered the body of the deceased, and after the postmortem, handed it over to her mother. The police also registered a case against Ali Raza and Khadim Hussain and started raids to arrest the fugitives. Incidents of violence against women are not uncommon in the province.

On February 24, a woman was allegedly murdered by her father in Shalimar area of Lahore over suspicion of being in a relationship with a man. The woman was a mother of six and had recently started living in a separate house with her children following her divorce from her husband. The father, identified as Akram, suspected his daughter of being in a relationship with a man. On seeing the two together, apparently inside the victim’s house, the father opened fire, killing her on the spot and injuring the man.

On February 12, a man killed his wife with an axe in Khurrianwala. Reportedly, he killed her out of resentment for not having children. He then dismembered her body and threw it in a nullah. The murderer himself staged a drama of kidnapping of his wife and reached the police station with a complaint of her abduction.

On the day of the incident, the husband allegedly took his wife to the nullah where he killed her with an axe. He then cut her body into pieces. On February 2, a man stabbed his wife to death with a cleaver in Khurrianwala.