Senior journalist’s son arrested for allegedly killing wife

Islamabad police on Friday arrested the son of senior journalist Ayaz Amir on charges of killing his wife.

Ayaz Amir’s daughter-in-law, Sara Bibi, 37, was allegedly murdered at her farmhouse in Islamabad's Chak Shehzad suburb, police said adding that the victim’s husband Shahnawaz Amir has been detained as the prime suspect for investigation.

Sources told The Express Tribune that Sarah, a Canadian citizen and the third wife of Shahnawaz Amir, reached Pakistan from Dubai a day earlier. According to sources, Sara and Shahnawaz had an altercation over a domestic issue on Thursday night which led to her death as the accused had hit her in the head with an iron dumbbell.

According to the sources, after killing his wife the accused put her body in a bathtub. The police arrested the accused and took him to Shahzad Town Police Station for further investigation.

According to the sources, the police completed the post-mortem of the deceased at the Polyclinic hospital.

The deceased had sustained wounds on different parts of the body, the sources said adding that the victim’s head injury was confirmed in the post-mortem. The sources, however, said that the actual cause of the death could not be ascertained during the post-mortem. The sources said that doctors have decided to conduct a forensic test to determine the cause of the death. Samples have been taken from the victim’s liver, heart, lungs, spleen and stomach, which will be sent to Lahore for a forensic test.

However, the police have said that the FIR will be registered after the investigation was complete.

“The incident is being investigated,” a police spokesperson said while reserving further comments.

Earlier, talking to the media Ayaz Amir expressed his shock and pain over the death of his daughter-in-law. “I would wish this upon no one,” he said “When I got the news...what can I say?” he added finding himself at a complete loss of words.

“It is something that shakes you to the bones,” he confessed. However, Amir declined to reveal further details about the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2022.