Two siblings held for ‘murdering’ sister

Victim caught her elder brothers behaving immorally with a girl, suspects killed her to cover it up

Two siblings were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly murdering their 12-year-old sister. Hina Fatima, 12-year-old was murdered earlier this week in Ganesh Town near Sahiwal police station by unidentified assailants and her body was then strung up from a faucet.

Earlier this week, the victim’s parents had gone to a nearby village to attend a funeral, while her brothers Mudassar and Tasarwur returned home after their shift at a restaurant in Sargodha. Meanwhile, Hina went to Quran classes after school. When she returned home, she found her two brothers involved in an indecent act with a village girl.

She expressed her rage and warned her brothers that she "will inform the parents". Mudassar and Tasarwur allegedly strangled their sister out of terror and then hanged her body from a faucet with a cloth around her neck, staging the incident as a suicide.

The investigation team, which included DSP Azim Warraich, SHO Police Station Sahiwal, Inspector Tariq Irfan Gondal and SP Investigation Farhan Aslam, took the suspects into custody on suspicion under the direction of DPO Sargodha Faisal Kamran and SP inquiry Farhan Aslam and began an inquiry.

It was discovered in the investigation that Mudassar and Tasarwur murdered their 12-year-old sister and hanged the body from a faucet before leaving for a night shift at their restaurant. The brothers reportedly staged the crime scene to make it look like unidentified suspects attempted to rape Hina Fatima before killing her.

During interrogations, Tasarwur and Mudassar admitted that they were behaving indecently with a girl in the village and their sister Hina caught them red-handed, shouting that she would tell their mother and father. Both accused strangled the girl to death and hanged her body from a pipe before leaving for work in Sargodha.

Sargodha RPO Sharukh Kamal and DPO Faisal Kamran announced to give cash reward and certificates of appreciation to the investigation team of the police for tracing the murder case.

Fratricide remains shockingly common in Punjab. In Khurrianwala in April 2022, three armed men allegedly killed their sister while injuring their brother-in-law and three nephews over a property dispute. Safia Bibi, wife of Amjad, had demanded her share in the property from her brothers, Fakhar, Faryad and Imran.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2023.