Honour killing: A dangerous dance with death

Body of young man accused of having illicit relations with two women was recovered by police.

RAJANPUR: The body of a young man who was accused of having illicit relations with two women in Jampur tehsil was recovered by police on Sunday.

Allahabad resident Muhammad Tahir Nawaz (29) attended a wedding of a friend in Jampur on November 23. Nawaz attended the event to participate in the ‘Jhomer’ ritual of the traditional Seraiki wedding and also performed in several Lok dances at the event. The same night, Nawaz’s elder brother Muhammad Tariq received a phone call telling him that his brother had had a heart attack while performing the dance.

“They told me that he fell during the dance and his head hit a stone. I was told that he was in the hospital and that he was in serious condition,” Tariq said.

On hearing the news Tariq immediately left the village for Jampur, which is located 10 kilometres away from his home. He went to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Jampur and doctors told him that his brother was still in a critical condition.

“They told me that he had sustained severe head injuries and that he had a heart attack. No one mentioned the bullet wounds and I think the doctors were paid to keep the matter quiet,” Tariq told the police.

According to Tariq, the doctor who treated his brother Dr Fayyaz Faizi said that he needed to be referred to Nishtar Hospital in Multan. “We were in the middle of shifting him to the other hospital when he died,” he said. The funeral of Nawaz was held two days later. It was after the burial that some mourners pulled Tariq aside and told him that his brother had been murdered.

“A few guests at the wedding told me that while my brother was performing the dances, three men shot him and because of all the noise no one noticed,” Tariq said, adding that later on Dr Fayyaz examined him at the wedding and immediately said that he had fallen and injured himself.

Muhammad Tariq filed an FIR with the Rajanpur police on November 26, implicating Muhammad Amir, Muhammad Tariq alias ‘Tari’ and Wazir Ahmed for having murdered his brother Nawaz. Several wedding guests said that the three men had already threatened to kill Nawaz on suspicion of his having had illicit relations with two women of their house. “We didn’t know that they would try anything at the wedding but they had openly stated that he would not live after what he had done,” said a guest at the wedding, Haider.

Muhammad Tariq exhumed the grave of his brother along with police officials and the Rajanpur district police officer (DPO) sent the body to the THQ hospital for an autopsy. “The autopsy report has confirmed that Nawaz was murdered. There are bullet wounds to his head,” Constable Ishaq Dar said, adding, “it is hard to believe that any doctor could have missed a bullet wound to the head. We think that Dr Fayyaz was paid to keep the matter quiet.”

The FIR was registered against three men in Thana Jampur. Initially two men, Muhammad Tariq (Tari) and Muhammad Amir, had been implicated but after watching the wedding video and speaking to three wedding guests, the police also nominated Wazir Ahmed.

The accused were arrested on December 14 and have confessed to the crime. “According to their initial statement, they had planned to kill Nawaz all along. They said that he had relations with two women of their family,” Dar said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2010.