‘Honourable’ ends: Man strangles daughter in her sleep

Saeeda’s father said that he could not forgive her marrying against his will.

FAISALABAD: A man strangled his daughter after she married against his will on Saturday.

According to police officials, Chak No614 GB resident Mian Khan’s daughter Saeeda Bibi, 18, married her neighbour Sarfraz against the will of her parents.

Mian Khan called a panchayat to force Sarfraz’s parents to send his daughter back to him. “He said that he would accept the marriage after his daughter was sent back to him.

He swore it in front of the panchayat,” eyewitness Rahbar Khan said.

Mian Khan swore that he would accept the marriage once his daughter was returned to him and that he would take her to her in-law’s place himself. “He promised that she would be returned to her husband within two days.

He said that he wanted to perform the ‘rukhsati’ of his daughter and that he wanted a grand ceremony,” said a panchayat member Naseer Waliullah Kamal. After Khan vowed to return his daughter, Sarfraz’s parents handed Saeeda Bibi over to her parents on Friday afternoon. Saeeda’s mother told police officials that on Saturday night, her husband strangled his daughter in her sleep. “He choked her with her dupatta. I asked him about arrangements for her rukhsati and he told me that there would be no ceremony as she was dead. When I rushed to find her, I saw that he had already killed her,” Saeeda’s mother Safia Bibi said.

Tandlianwala SHO Mian Zahid Pehalwan said that the body of the deceased had been handed over to her husband Sarfraz after a post mortem. “The tests concluded that the girl had been strangled to death and her father has admitted to the crime,” he said. “Mian Khan told us that he killed his daughter to regain his honour after she had humiliated the entire family. ‘I would never have let her return to that man’ he told us,” the SHO said.

Pehlwan said that a case had been registered under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against Mian Khan on the complaint of deceased’s husband Sarfraz and the accused had been arrested. “I have no regrets over killing my daughter. This was my duty and she was wicked.

She needed to be taught a lesson and she disobeyed me. She had no right to marry without my permission,” Khan told police.

“My entire family, biradari and the village was pointing fingers and ridiculing me after my daughter married of her own free will. After killing her, everyone feels that my honour is restored,” he said.

“Saeeda and I initially planned on running away because we knew that her family would never let us marry. My parents agreed to the match and supported us. I have lost my wife and I want her killer to be punished,” Sarfraz told reporters.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th,  2011.