Man stabbed to death for ‘facilitating extramarital affair’

An investigation into last month’s murder of a rickshaw driver in Sohrab Goth has revealed that he was suspected of facilitating an extramarital affair between his friend and the wife of one of the killers.

The main accused had earlier attempted to murder his wife after a jirga in Larkana district’s Ratodero town declared her “kari for having an extramarital affair with the rickshaw driver’s friend”, but she survived.

The driver, 17-year-old Mukhtar Ali, was stabbed to death on June 13 by the husband, Manzoor Ali, and his two brothers and three friends outside the victim’s house in Ayub Goth’s Ashraf Society.

Mukhtar was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital by his father and two cousins, but he succumbed to his injuries before reaching the health facility. His autopsy report showed that he had suffered fatal wounds in the neck and abdomen made by a sharp object.

His father Sadruddin took the body to their hometown in Ratodero for burial. On his return to Karachi on June 18 he filed a complaint against Manzoor Ali, his brothers Dhani Bakhsh and Naseerullah, friend Muhammad Khan and two hitherto unidentified friends.

The father told the police that Mukhtar was watching TV when someone knocked on their door. “He went to see who was at the door, but suddenly we heard him screaming for help. Mukhtar’s cousins Aijaz and Shah Dost and I rushed to him and found him injured.”

He said they saw a group of people holding sharp weapons fleeing the scene. “We recognised four of them because they are our relatives. We took my son to the hospital in a rickshaw, but he died on the way. Before that he told us what had happened.”  

The Ratodero episode

Sohrab Goth investigation officer Sub-Inspector Ali Muhammad Soomro told The News that Mukhtar was murdered over “honour”. “His cousin was married to Manzoor [in Ratodero] a few years ago. Sadruddin claimed that Manzoor had caught his wife cheating on him with one of Mukhtar’s friends a few months ago.”

Soomro added that a jirga was formed to punish the friend and Manzoor’s wife on the husband’s plea, and after listening to the arguments the jirga declared the friend “karo” and Manzoor’s wife “kari”.

“The jirga announced that Manzoor’s wife had brought ‘dishonour’ on him and ordered both the accused to be killed to restore the husband’s ‘honour and reputation’.”

The hunt in Karachi

The police officer said the friend had managed to escape, but Manzoor “killed his wife and dumped her body”, but she survived, adding that the husband then came to Karachi in search of the friend and started living in Ashraf Society, where Mukhtar was also a resident.

Soomro said Manzoor searched for the “karo” but failed. “He, however, knew that it was Mukhtar who had facilitated the affair. When Manzoor failed to locate the friend, he killed the rickshaw driver.”

The officer admitted that the police were yet to locate all the accused. He said Manzoor hailed from Balochistan, adding that the police had sought permission from their higher-ups to raid the husband’s house in his hometown.  

Rising honour violence

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s (HRCP) media monitoring and human rights violation reports indicate that incidents of honour violence have been rising across the country.

The body’s statistics show that 450 honour killings were reported in 2015, 561 in 2016 and 45 in just the first month of this year.

HRCP Sindh Vice-Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt told The News that they had the data on only the reported cases, claiming that 90 per cent of the cases remained unreported.

Butt said honour violence was a by-product of tribal and feudal systems, adding that the trend had, unfortunately, extended to the cities and now cases were also being reported from metropolises such as Karachi. “Honour killing has become a mindset, and now it exists in all the classes.”