Price of freedom?: Three shot dead in posh F-10 sector in broad daylight

A woman, her daughter and their driver killed; police suspect husband’s involvement.

ISLAMABAD:

Unknown gunmen on Tuesday morning shot dead three people including a woman and her 17-year-old daughter at a busy traffic junction near the uptown F-10 Markaz.

Witnesses told the police that the assailants came on a Suzuki Cultus and shot the victims, seated in a Toyota Corolla, with carbine guns when they approached the F-10 roundabout. The suspects fled from the scene. Police said no one could note the registration number of the car.

“We are yet to obtain further information about the gunmen. A witness told us they were speaking Punjabi but we don’t have more details,” another police official said.

Najma and her daughter Sidra died at the spot while their driver, Nazeer, died in the hospital. The police said that the driver was unable to tell them anything before dying.

“The bodies were riddled with bullets as the gunmen used carbines to shoot at their targets from a close range,” said ASP Captain (retd) Mustansar, the Sub-Divisional Police Officer Margalla. Police said no one had approached the police to claim the bodies.

“She never disclosed her residence as she was facing life threats from her husband with whom she had developed differences over property and had filed for divorce in court,” said a police official.

Police officials said Sardar Ameer Khan, Najma’s husband, is the primary suspect in the case.

“He was the last person known who had differences with her,” said a police official close to investigations. Police said they were working on some other clues as well.

Najma had earlier escaped an attempt on her life in July. On 25 July, she had filed a complaint against her husband for attempting to murder her in Shalimar Police Station. At that time she was living in sector G-11 and the firing incident had taken place near her residence.

Her husband, Khan, was on an interim bail from the court in the case. Najma was returning from the hearing of the case while she was killed, police said. Her husband did not appear before the court for the hearing of his interim bail. His absence from the court only minutes before the incident also raised suspicions that he could be involved, police said.

Najma was earlier married to Mazhar Hussain and Sidra was his daughter. However, she had married Khan after obtaining divorce from Hussain.

While Pakistan suffers appalling statistics on crimes against women, such attacks in broad daylight in Islamabad are rare. Almost 1,500 women were murdered in Pakistan last year, according to the Aurat Foundation, a local organisation working to protect women. Another 500 were the victims of “honour killings”.

* With additional input from AFP

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2011.