Skewed ‘justice’: Three dead in separate honour killing cases

Death sentence, life imprisonment handed to two men accused of murder in Swabi.

SWABI/ MANSEHRA/ DI KHAN:

A man and woman were shot dead in Bekara, Tank district on Saturday for being allegedly involved in an illicit relationship, a Gomal police official told The Express Tribune.

Banaras Khan shot dead his wife, Mehrunnisa, and her alleged lover, Qismat Khan. The woman belonged to the Mehsud tribe of South Waziristan while the man was from Bannu, but both families were presently settled in Bekara.

Man strangles daughter to death

In a separate incident, a man strangled his daughter to death in Bat Dariyan village of Mansehra district, police sources said on Saturday.

City police reported that Yasmin, 17, daughter of Noor Khan, died on Friday. Noor had told his neighbours that his daughter had died due to an unspecified chest problem because of which she used to cough frequently.

However, they contested his claim and informed the police, after which Noor was apprehended and the body was taken for an autopsy. Before the autopsy report could be released, the victim’s mother disclosed that her husband had strangled Yasmin to death in a fit of anger due to ‘suspicions about her character’. The police have registered a murder case against the accused.

Murder suspect punished

Chota Lahor Additional Sessions Judge Manzoor Qadir handed a death sentence to a criminal and life imprisonment to another on Saturday in the murder case of a woman.

Daulat Khan had reported to the police that the accused, Qudrat Sher and his father Quraish Khan, killed his wife on September 6, 2013. Daulat added they both escaped after the incident and were arrested by police later, after which proceedings started in the sessions court.

On Saturday, the additional judge gave his verdict in the case by handing a death sentence to Qudrat, along with a Rs100,000 fine and six-month imprisonment if he is unable to submit the fine. Quraish was awarded life imprisonment and a Rs100,000 fine.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2014.