Murder mystery solved

Man had suspected victim of having an affair with his wife.

ISLAMABAD:

Three suspects including a woman were arrested on Tuesday for their role in a murder that happened over a year ago.

Muhammad Haleem’s mutilated body was found from a wooded area that falls in the limits of the Sihala police in August 2011. The post mortem revealed that he was strangulated before his face was crushed with a heavy stone in an attempt to mask his identity. But the police still managed to identify the victim.

Investigations led police to Haleem’s uncle, Wali Shah. “We suspected he knew about the murder and could possibly be involved as well,” said the investigation officer.

During interrogations, Shah told the police that he and another relative named Muhammad Ali had killed Haleem together when the victim came to visit them in Islamabad last year, a police officer said. After strangulating him, the two put the body in a car and dumped it in a forest near the Soan River, added the officer.

Shah suspected his wife, Nagina Bibi, was having an affair with Haleem and got into a fistfight with his nephew, which ended in murder.

Based on information revealed during Shah’s interrogation, the Sihala police also arrested Ali and Bibi from Peshawar for their part in the murder. The police also learnt during the investigations that while Bibi had been having an affair, it was with Ali, and not Haleem.

“Ali suspected that Shah had gotten air of his wife’s affair, so he framed Haleem and got him killed,” said the police officer.

After Haleem’s death, Bibi lied to her husband and said Haleem had forced himself onto her and she had resisted. The allegations proved false as Shah later learnt the truth from other sources, the investigation officer said.

Ali and Bibi were transferred to Peshawar Jail, while Shah is in police custody on two-day physical remand, after which he will be sent to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.