Ex-husband confesses to killing Wajiha Swati

Police retrieve victim’s body from house in Lakki Marwat

RAWALPINDI:

The ex-husband of Wajiha Swati, a Pakistani-American woman who was abducted and killed two months ago, has confessed to killing his former wife. Upon identification of the woman’s ex-husband and accused Rizwan Habib, the police have also retrieved the victim’s body from a room of a house in Lakki Marwat. 

Despite the fact that accused Rizwan Habib was named in the FIR, the police deferred his arrest for two months. Addressing a press conference on the abduction and murder of Wajiha, Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Sajid Kayani said that Wajiha had reached Pakistan on October 16.

Her former husband, Rizwan Habib, killed her on the same day after kidnapping her and buried her body in a room at the house of one of his own servants in Lakki Marwat. Police have recovered the body on the identification of the suspect, after which the body will be shifted to Rawalpindi.

The body will be handed over to the family after completing legal formalities. The CPO further said that a total of three suspects, including Rizwan Habib, have been formally arrested in this case. In addition to the main accused Rizwan Habib, his father, and a domestic worker have also been taken into custody.

Habib had killed Wajiha on the very first day of her arrival from the United States, and on the advice of his servant, shifted her body from Rawalpindi to Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa. Habib buried his ex-wife’s body in a room of his domestic worker’s house.

The CPO said it was too early to say whether Wajiha had been given drugs before being murdered. The facts will come out after the postmortem report, he said. “The case is of immense international significance for which four teams, headed by SSP Investigation Syed Ghazanfar, were formed to investigate the matter,” he said, adding the case is being heard in the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court while the US Embassy in Pakistan also exchanged information on the case.

When asked about the twomonth delay in the arrest of prime suspect Rizwan Habib, the CPO said that the police needed sufficient evidence to validate his arrest.

Habib was arrested after concrete evidence of his involvement had surfaced, he said, adding that the outcome of the case is horrific. The investigation team retrieved the body of the woman after the confession and identification of the accused.

The police have solid evidence against the accused, which cannot save him from punishment. The CPO said that the Punjab Chief Minister and IG Punjab had taken notice of the Wajiha’s abduction case and had directed to use all available resources to investigate it.

He added that the woman would have been dead anyway even if she had been recovered on the first day, as the accused had killed her as soon as she reached Pakistan. Head of investigation team SSP Investigation Syed Ghazanfar and SP Pothohar Rana Habib also attended the CPO’s press conference.