Man guns down wife, mother-in-law’

Suspicion over woman’s behaviour led to killings

OKARA:

A woman, Abida, and her mother were shot dead allegedly in the name of honour in the area of Shergarh Police Station.

The police arrested the suspect, who happened to be the slain woman’s husband, and his father.

A case had been registered by the Shergarh Police Station on the complaint of slain Abida's aunt.

According to DPO Mansoor Aman, the police received information that two women had been shot dead in 23/D area of Shergarh.

ASP Munnaza Karamat, along with a heavy contingent of police, was dispatched to the crime scene to get a first-hand account of what had transpired.

According to the FIR, the women had been murdered due to a property dispute, but SHO Hakim Jahanzaib said that police’s initial investigations showed that the women were allegedly killed in the name of honour.

Police said that Abida had married Arshad who worked as a security guard. They had had three children.

They said Arshad and Abida both worked in Lahore.

Arshad somehow began suspecting his wife of having an affair. With the passage of time he became more and more paranoid. Until he could take it no more, he decided to send Abida back to the village.

Complying with her husband’s wishes, Abida went back to the village and started living with her stepmother, Ashran Bibi.

Meanwhile, Arshad learnt from a source that his wife was still “having an illicit relationship with someone” and his mother-in-law fully supported Abida.

Police said that this was the motive that prompted Arshad to allegedly kill his wife “in the name of honour” while she had been busy working in the fields.

Later, he also allegedly killed his mother-in-law Ashran Bibi and escaped.

DPO Mansoor Aman took notice of the killing of the two women and formed a team headed by the ASP of Renala Khurd, Munnaza Karamat.

On the instructions of ASP Munnaza Karamat, the SHO of Shergarh, Jahanzaib Hakim, along with a police party, managed to track down the suspect and arrested him along with his father.

The police registered a case against Arshad, his father and a person named Riaz on the complaint of Kaneez Bibi, an aunt of slain Abida.

Police handed over the bodies of the two women to their heirs after postmortem.

In the month of February this year, a youth and his teenage cousin, who had fled to Karachi to get married but were duped by the girl’s family to return to their hometown Okara, were killed separately allegedly by the girl’s family in the name of honour, police had said.

Police had alleged that the girl’s father and brothers first killed the boy and then two days later they also killed their girl.

Police said that the youth’s body had been thrown into a canal.

The DPO had taken notice of the incident and ordered the SHO of Sadar Police Station, Maher Ismail, to open investigations into the case.

DPO Mansoor Aman had told The Express Tribune that the accused, Haider, had allegedly confessed to killing his nephew, Sabir.

Police quoted the accused as having told them that he had thrown Sabir’s body into a canal.

Police, while giving details of the incident of honour killing, said that the 15-year-old girl, a resident of Chak No 4/1, had fallen in love with her cousin, Sabir, who was 10 years senior to her. Sabir, too, had been interested in his cousin.

They had escaped to Karachi to get married. The girl’s father somehow learnt about their being in Karachi. He, along with his sons, went to Karachi and asked his daughter and nephew that they had no objection over their wanting to get married and that they should accompany them back to their hometown.

The youth and his teenage cousin fell for it and accompanied their kin back to their hometown, not having an inkling of what their kin had planned for them.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2023.