British-Pakistani woman ‘killed’ by husband in Mirpur

Relatives believed she died in a car accident; husband arrested.


Our Correspondent September 08, 2013
Sources close to the family revealed that the couple had a severe altercation in Bradford, after which Rashid came back to Mirpur, where he shared his wife’s growing differences with his family elders. PHOTO: FILE

MUZAFFARABAD: A British woman of Kashmiri origin was murdered allegedly by her husband near the Dina-Jhelum Bypass road on August 29. She reportedly did not die in a car accident as was previously believed, The Express Tribune learnt on Sunday.

Saira Rani was a naturalised British citizen from Islamgarh, Mirpur, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and was a resident of Bradford, United Kingdom. She recently married Rashid Ashraf, also from Mirpuri and a naturalised British citizen, and the couple had a four-month-old child.

Sources close to the family revealed that the couple had a severe altercation in Bradford, after which Rashid came back to Mirpur, where he shared his wife’s growing differences with his family elders.

Rashid’s family spoke to Saira and convinced her to come to Pakistan to resolve the differences, they said.

Saira decided to come to Pakistan and reconcile ties with her husband. After landing in Lahore on August 29, she was en route to Mirpur with her husband and his uncle Aslam Chuadhry. When they reached the Dina-Jhelum Bypass, Rashid reportedly pulled Saira out from the car and murdered her.

However, the sources told The Express Tribune that someone close to Rashid, who also lived in Mirpur, saw him moving Saira’s body to another car and revealed this information to Saira’s father. On hearing this, the father filed a complaint at the Mangla police station on Friday, urging the police to investigate whether his daughter was killed in an accident or murdered by her in-laws. The police began the investigation and arrested Rashid along with his uncle, Aslam Chaudhry, on Saturday.

Reportedly, Rashid confessed to the murder during interrogation, saying he did it to end the dispute between them once and for all.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2013.

COMMENTS (13)

LuvDat! | 10 years ago | Reply

To Men! Bros! You can't live or die happily once you harm your own kids or their mother. Don't defy me, but it is not natural for a father to harm or hurt his own children or their mother and sleep peacefully with his conscience, period. You are stuck for life to provide for them nomater what. That's it!

That's why the whole world says: Be a man!

dina | 10 years ago | Reply If he is guilty,and by all accounts he appears to be- Rashid should be punished for choosing to 'end the dispute' by killing his wife.If he could not tolerate her, the civilised thing to do would be to divorce her, but that to his Pakistani male mardangy tradition would have meant 'humiliation' ,no? He would have to give her her mahr etc and that would have been a matter of shame infront of his associates no doubt.BUT did it ever occur to him- that his children would lose a mother forever? Did he stop to think? What was those 5 children's crime? That they should be so cruelly denied their mother?What kind of father is that does that to the mother of his own children? Who can give them the care that only a mother can?
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