Three women among four killed for ‘honour’

Punjab IG seeks report on murder incidents from RPO Rawalpindi

RAWALPINDI:

In three different incidents of honour killing in Rawalpindi, four individuals, including three women, were brutally murdered on Wednesday.

The incidents reportedly occurred within a span of less than two hours.

According to a spokesperson for the police, the first incident of murder occurred in the Kashmiriyan area of Kalar Syedan police station, where a brother shot and killed his divorced sister in the name of honour. The police transferred the body of the deceased, identified as 40-year-old Sobia, to the hospital.

He said, however, the accused fled the scene.

In the second incident, which took place in Dhok Muk, unknown assailants stabbed and killed a mother and her son, identified as Rukhsana and Muhammad and injured her husband named Shabbir.

The police transferred the bodies along with the injured to the hospital.

The spokesperson said the culprits remain unidentified, and the police are attempting to apprehend them.

The third incident occurred in Malik Colony, Dhamial, where a former husband shot and killed a woman. The suspect, a resident of Swabi area, has also escaped after the incident.

The spokesperson said, the police have registered separate cases for all three incidents. The bodies of the three women, along with the other victim, have been transferred to different hospitals.

He further said investigations into these heinous murders are ongoing, and the police are striving to apprehend the culprits.

The preliminary investigations suggest that all three incidents were committed in the name of honour.

Sobia, the deceased in the first incident, had divorced Yaser a few days before the incident, and her brother, Usman, killed her in the name of honour.

Moreover, SSP Zanira Azfer and SSP Operations Faisal Saleem visited the crime scenes to assess the situation.

SSP Zanira Azfer stated that the initial investigations revealed connections between the incidents. Meanwhile, Punjab IG Dr Usman Anwar has taken notice of the murder incidents in Kallar Syedan and sought a report from RPO Rawalpindi.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2023.