Murky details: With wife as only witness, man found dead in his house

Police believe they were contacted five hours after the murder took place.

KARACHI:

A 32-year-old man was killed late Thursday night in the Defence Housing Authority’s Phase II after unidentified men allegedly barged into his house and slit his throat open in the presence of his wife. The police, however, was informed at least five hours after the murder.

Waseem Iqbal, an assistant manager at a multinational, went home around 11pm after offering Taraveeh prayers but according to details, he was unaware that he was being followed by two men. When Waseem’s 21-year-old wife, A*, opened the door to let her husband in the house, the men barged into the house behind him.

They allegedly took Waseem into one of the rooms and locked it from the inside. According to the lone eyewitness, A, her husband could be heard pleading and resisting but the men spent 20 minutes with him and then left the house. “When I went into the room, my husband was tied up with a rope on the floor and blood was gushing out of his slit throat,” A told the police in her statement.

The police, however, find this account hard to believe. “It doesn’t seem plausible that while the assailants were busy slitting the victim’s throat in one room, the wife could not leave the house and get help,” said Baloch colony SHO Haq Nawaz Phulphuto while talking to The Express Tribune.

Phulputo said that instead of informing the police, A contacted two of her deceased husband’s friends, Muhammad Anjum and Jibran Khan, who then called up Waseem’s father in Rahim Yar Khan.

“When I arrived at my son’s residence from Rahim Yar Kahn via Sukkur airport, he was laying in a pool of blood inside a room. There was nothing I could do but call the police,” said Saleem Iqbal. “I am not blaming anyone. A is my niece and I do not believe that she could have been behind it.”

The police, however, have included A and Waseem’s two friends in their investigations. “We’re not sure if the men were inside the house prior to Waseem’s arrival or if they actually entered with him,” said SHO Phulphuto. “One thing is clear though - there is enough evidence to link the wife to Waseem’s death. The police will arrest the murderers soon.”

*Names changed to  protect privacy of individuals

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2013.