Reconciliation bid proves fatal

Man kills wife, daughter and then commits suicide

LAHORE:

A man committed suicide after shooting his wife and daughter dead and injuring a pastor at Dhalla Flats on Sunday.

Mohsin Masih, along with his wife Maria Mohsin and three-year-old daughter Hania Mohsin, had gone to Pastor Azhar Khokhar’s house situated near the Saint John’s church to ask the pastor to mediate between himself and his wife since the couple had lately been having frequent domestic issues and their relationship had soured.

As the three-year-old child watched her parents converse with the pastor, she got startled when the conversation between the couple suddenly turned acerbic despite the pastor’s efforts to calm them down.

The episode culminated in Mohsin pulling a pistol out from his pocket and opening fire on his wife and daughter.

The pastor attempted to overpower Mohsin, but the latter’s fury had flared up to the point from where there had been no turning back. One of the bullets fired by Mohsin also struck the Pastor Azhar Khokhar who was later taken to a hospital in a critical condition.

Read CM orders deployment of 3,000 more cops to fight street crime

The suspect later also shot himself dead. Upon receiving information about the incident, police and rescue teams rushed to the spot and removed the bodies to the morgue for autopsy.

They also collected forensic evidence from the crime scene.

An investigation officer said that the case looked like to be an open-and-shut case.

He said that the suspect’s carrying a gun with him while going to see the pastor indicated that he had had ulterior motives on his mind from the word go.

Nearly two years ago, a woman had been 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, 26-year-old Mahwish Bibi, the daughter of Nawshir, a resident of Chak No 534GB, had been married to Ali Raza, a resident of Chak No 448GB, eight years ago. The couple had three children, three-year-old Sufyan, two-year-old Faizan and eight-month-old Ghafan.

On the day of the incident, Ali Raza, while going on a business trip with his brother-in-law Khadim Hussain, saw his wife Mahwish with a man named Fazal alias Faju, a resident of the village.

Ali developed suspicions over his wife after which he and Khadim grabbed Mahwish and put a headscarf and a rope around her neck, strangling her to death. The alleged murderers escaped after committing the crime.

Jaranwala police had recovered the body of the deceased and, after the postmortem, handed it over to her mother, Kausar Bibi.

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, 2021, a woman was murdered by her father in Shalimar area of Lahore over suspicion of being in a relationship with a man. The woman, Shahnaz Bibi, was a mother of six, and had recently started living in a separate house with her children following divorce from her husband, Kashif.

The father, identified as Akram, suspected his daughter of being in a relationship with a man named Zubair. On seeing the two together, apparently inside Shahnaz’s house, the father opened fire, killing Shahnaz on the spot and injuring Zubair.

On February 12, 2021, a man had killed his wife with an axe in Khurrianwala.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2023.