Man ‘kills wife, stepdaughter’

Gujranwala witnesses five murders in two families by kin

GUJRANWALA:

A man allegedly killed his wife and teenage daughter in the name of honour, police said.

In a separate incident, a man allegedly killed three of a family.

As far as the first incident was concerned, police said the suspect fled after the incident.

However, they identified him through the CCTV footage.

The trail of the alleged incident of honour killing goes back 12 years when one Bilal Mehr had gone to a cemetery to attend a funeral where he spotted Irshad Bibi, wife of a gravedigger, Ejaz.

Police said that Bilal Mehr fell for Irshad Bibi.

Police said Bilal somehow managed to get Irshad Bibi’s phone number and called her. Surprisingly, Irshad Bibi responded favourably to Bilal’s intransigence.

Thus began an affair, and the two talked to each other by phone regularly. Police said the rendezvous continued for two years and then Irshad Bibi eloped, taking her daughter with her.

Police said that Irshad Bibi took refuge at a shelter home in Lahore from where she demanded of Ejaz to divorce her.

She got divorced and then Bilal married Irshad Bibi. He stayed in Lahore for a few months and then returned to his hometown in Wazirabad. Bilal, his wife and stepdaughter found a flat in Mohalla Rahimpura, and then he went to Iraq. Ten years passed, and apparently the couple didn’t have any fissure.

But then things changed.

Police said that there was a clinic on the ground floor of the flat where Irshad Bibi lived with her daughter. A doctor at the clinic started visiting Bilal’s house.

Bilal Mehr returned home and got wind of his wife’s affair with the doctor. Bilal made a plan to check the veracity of the rumours doing rounds in the neighbourhood. Bilal told his family that he was going back to Iraq.

On the day of his supposed departure, the family hopped in the doctor’s car to go to the airport to see Bilal off.

Bilal took a detour, telling his children that he was taking them to visit the zoo first before going to the airport. At the zoo, he told his children to go home, and that he would go to the airport alone.

Police said Bilal stayed in the city away from the family.

They said that the very next day, he came to know through a source that the doctor was at his home.

Police said that he went home and allegedly found his wife and the doctor in a compromising position. He killed his wife Irshad Bibi and daughter Zahra with an axe and also fired at the doctor, but he escaped unhurt.

Three killed

A man allegedly killed three of a family, police said.

The RPO of Gujranwala took notice of the incident after which police arrested the accused within four hours of the incident.

Police also claimed to have recovered the “murder weapon”.

The suspect allegedly killed Muhammad Nawaz, his daughter and son in Mohalla Siddique Pura within the limits of the Narowal City Police Station.

Police said that Muhammad Nawaz had married off his daughter Tehmina four months ago to a man in Mahianwala, a nearby village of Narowal. They said that except Muhammad Nawaz, no one in the family had been happy over the marriage arrangement.

Police said that a young man, Hamza, who was Muhammad Nawaz’s relative and neighbour as well, had been particularly unhappy over Tehmina’s marriage since he wanted to marry her.

Police said that Hamza also used to call Tehmina’s husband, asking him to divorce her. Tehmina became fed up with the situation and came over to her parents’ home along with her husband.

They said that during this time, Hamza allegedly tried to see her and had had heated arguments with the girl’s father Muhammad Nawaz and brother Afzal.

The other day, Hamza made a plan to meet Tehmina and tried to convince her over the phone to see him just once, but Tehmina refused.

Tehmina’s refusal to see Hamza irritated him, and he barged into her house armed with a pistol.

When Muhammad Nawaz and his son intercepted him, Hamza opened fire on Muhammad Nawaz and Afzal, killing them on the spot. Tehmina tried to escape, but she too fell victim to Hamza’s ire.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2023.