Crime of passion: Police arrest three of five alleged murderers

Accused include victim’s wife, father-in-law.

NOWSHERA:

The police arrested three of five people accused of murdering a man in January 2013 in Khairabad on Saturday, including the wife and father-in-law of the victim, while a search for the other two accomplices is under way.

Akora Khattak SHO Fazal Subhan said Mehmood, a shovel operator who was killed around 13 months ago, had been married to Nida, a resident of the area.

He said they learnt during investigation that Nida’s parents married her to Mehmood without her consent as she was in love with her cousin, adding she made various excuses to opt out of the arranged marriage but her parents did not budge from their decision.

Subhan revealed after a few months of their marriage, Mehmood left his house due to a dispute with his parents and came with his wife to live at his in-laws’ house.

The police official said it was then that her cousin Maqsood, whom Nida was originally involved with, gunned down Mehmood and buried him in the limits of a local veterinary hospital with the help of his accomplices Baz Muhammad and Farhad.

Later the deceased’s brother Javed filed a complaint with the police after his brother was missing for a few days but police officials refused to register his case due to unknown reasons.

Javed then submitted an application to DIG Saeed Wazir to register a complaint of his missing brother after which the senior police official ordered the relevant police station to look into the applicant’s issue.

Subhan said in his FIR, Javed alleged his sister-in-law Nida and her father Nazir had killed his brother after which police arrested them both. He added both the accused confessed to the crime during initial investigation and revealed the names of their accomplices and the place where they had buried Mehmood’s body.

Police officials then exhumed Mehmood’s body and took it to a hospital for an autopsy where it was found he had been shot in the head, adding they later handed over the body to the deceased’s family.

The SHO said during a raid they arrested the murder’s alleged accomplice Baz Muhammad while Maqsood and Farhad are still on the run. The case is being investigated further and the accused will be brought to justice, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2014.