Foul play suspected: Bride dies from gas suffocation

FAISALABAD: A newlywed girl died of and her husband fainted apparently from suffocation when gas from a room heater accumulated in their room in the Samanabad area. Police however said they were investigating the possibility that the girl was murdered. A police spokesman told the media on Sunday that Muhammad Ahsan, a resident of Bismillah Chowk Muzaffar Colony, had recently married Rukhsar, a resident of Model Town. The spokesman said Ahsan’s family had been unable to explain why the bride was found dead in the bathroom and the groom was unconscious in his bed. Preliminary investigations had revealed that the couple had drunk milk before going to bed, police said, it was possible that some of the relatives might have poisoned the milk and staged the gas suffocation later. He said the police had initiated investigations. The girl’s body has been sent to a mortuary for post-mortem examination. The spokesman said close relatives of both families have been included in the interrogation process.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2014.