Spousal violence: Man kills wife over petty issue

Neighbours said Ahmed would occasionally pull out a pistol and threaten to kill his wife over petty arguments.

ISLAMABAD:

The city police on Sunday arrested a man for killing his wife over petty issues. Waqar Ahmed, 65, a resident of Sohan, had fled from his house after he shot and killed his wife, police said.

Khalida Waqar, 50, was pronounced dead on arrival by doctors at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims). The body was returned to the family for burial after they obtained permission from the administration to forgo a post mortem.

Quoting neighbours, the Shehzad town police said the couple had quarrelled over petty issues before, where Ahmed would pull out a pistol and threaten to kill his wife.

This time the man went ahead with his threat and pulled the trigger, shooting her in the chest, police said.

The police said that after being arrested, Ahmed claimed that he was not in his senses when he pulled the trigger and that he had no intention of shooting his wife.

“The gun went off by accident,” he told the police.

Police said Ahmed fled from the scene after shooting his wife; however, one of his two grownup sons told the police that he stayed at the house for a while and fled after realising that his wife had died. Police said they arrested him from another place where he was hiding.

The investigation officer said the initial statement of the suspect had been recorded, but they were still investigating to confirm if there was any hidden motive that the police were not yet privy to.

“It was hard to believe that he simply killed his wife in fury over such petty issues,” said one police official associated with the investigation.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2011.