Infatuation or moral indignation: Upset driver kills maid and cook

He surrendered to police and confessed to the murders.

LAHORE:

A housemaid and a cook who worked at a house in Defence were shot and killed on Tuesday by a driver also employed there.

Defence ASP Kashif Aslam told The Express Tribune that Khalid, 30, was sitting in the garage when Asadullah, 60, shot him four times in the chest. Khalid died instantly. Asadullah then walked into the house and shot and killed Abida, 30.

ASP Aslam said that Asadullah also shot Qasim, 24, a sweeper at the house. Qasim jumped out of the balcony on the first floor to save his life. His legs were fractured.

Police arrived at the scene after neighbours called them and Asadullah fired shots at the police vehicle. ASP Aslam said that the police asked him to surrender and arrested him when he put his gun on the ground.

A case under Section 302 (murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered against Asadullah by Defence B police.

Asadullah had been a driver at industrialist Hasan Akbar’s house for the past 30 years. Police said that the house owners were out of the country.

ASP Aslam told The Express Tribune that Asadullah had confessed to killing the maid and the cook and attempting to kill the sweeper. He said that Asadullah had claimed that the maid had illicit relations with the sweeper and the cook. Asadullah told the police that he had forbidden the maid and the two servants from indulging in immoral activities many times but they refused to listen to him, “so he had to kill them”.

Qasim, the sweeper who survived the attack, told the police that Asaullah had wanted to marry Abida and had proposed to her as well. He said she had turned down Asadullah’s proposal and told him off and stated that she wanted to marry Khalid. He said Asadullah had killed Khalid and Abida out of sheer jealousy and that his claims about any immoral behaviour were a pack of lies . He said that Asadullah had made the story because he wanted to justify the senseless killings. The bodies were taken to a morgue for autopsy. The police had informed Abida’s family in Jaranwala and Khalid’s family in Okara were of their demise.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2014.