Efforts to bury Razia Bibi’s murder

Two parties go back to their native village in Haripur where the local elders are trying to strike reconciliation.

ISLAMABAD: Efforts are underway to broker reconciliation between the husband of  a woman and her two brothers who killed her in the name of honour some two weeks ago.

Police said that the two parties had gone back to their native village in Haripur where the local elders were trying to strike reconciliation between the two families through a jirga.

Earlier, on July 31, 2010, Nadir Khan and Jahanzeb Khan entered the house of their sister, Razia Bibi, and shot her dead over the accusation of having an “immoral character” and “bringing a bad name to the family.”

Razia, a mother of five, was living with her husband Zulfiqar in a house in Serai Kharbuza near Tarnol.

Police said the two brothers had already threatened to kill her over allegedly having an illicit relationship with a man named Nawaz. Forty-year-old Razia, whose eldest son is 18, eloped with Nawaz, a co-worker at a brick kiln in the suburbs of Haripur. However, she was later recovered from a house in Losar village near Taxilla.

“Her husband Zulfiqar recovered her from the house of Nawaz’s friend,” said police.

An eight-member jirga gave Razia back to Zulfiqar, asking him to forgive her after she had repented her decision to elope with Nawaz. The couple along with their family left the brick-kiln job and relocated to Islamabad.

Police claimed that Zulfiqar had pardoned her wife. However, her brothers Nadir and Jahanzeb could not. They continued to threaten her until the day she was actually killed.

Meanwhile, the suspects could not be arrested by the police. They obtained an interim bail from the court last Saturday. Police said that both the families had gone to their village in Haripur. There were reports that they might have reached some agreement through the jirga,” police said. “We will get further details after the return from their village,” added the officer.

Sarfraz Bosal, a criminal lawyer, said that the accused were in their right to obtain interim bail. “In honour killing case, the legal heirs of the victim could easily get the bail of accused cancelled in the next hearing, if they want,” he said. He said that if the two parties reached a compromise out of court and the complainant withdrew his case, the state could not proceed with the case anymore.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2010.