Another couple murdered for ‘honour’ in Karachi

Another couple in Karachi has paid the price of marrying of their own free will with their lives. The case came to light on Monday when police arrested nine suspects, including the husband’s father and uncle, for the double murder.

Mominabad SHO Qasim Hameed told The News that the couple’s relatives strangled them to death in Orangi Town’s Fareed Colony on a jirga’s orders because they had allegedly disgraced the Kohistani tribe.

The house’s owner found the entrance door open and blood on the floor, following which he informed the police. A team of law enforcers arrived on the scene to gather evidence as well as the particulars of the couple, who had rented the house one and a half months ago.

The husband’s CNIC contained the address of his family’s house, from where the police arrested his father and uncle. The accused admitted that they and other relatives had murdered Hadi Abdullah, 25, and Hussaini Miskeen, 21, on a jirga’s orders because they had “disgraced their tribe by contracting love marriage”.

After the double murder, the accused handed over the couple’s bodies to gravediggers to bury them at the Qaimkhani graveyard in Ittehad Town. Police also arrested the gravediggers, who led them to the couple’s graves. The bodies were exhumed and sent to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for examination.

West DIGP Zulfiqar Larik said the police had arrested a total of nine suspects, and they were investigating how everyone was involved in the incident. An FIR would be registered after the post-mortem examinations.

Orangi Town SP Abid Ali Baloch said the couple was murdered on October 22, and their relatives transported their bodies, stuffed in gunny bags, to the graveyard in a rickshaw the next day.

Residents of Ittehad Town’s Nawab Colony, Hadi and Hussaini had eloped and rented a house in Orangi Town’s Fareed Colony. On October 24, when the house owner found blood on the floor and the couple missing, he informed the police.

SP Baloch claimed that the couple was not murdered on the jirga’s orders. “We have arrested nine suspects, including the husband’s father and uncle, and they all admitted that they had murdered the couple on a family decision.”

Hadi’s father told the police that Hussaini was his brother-in-law’s daughter and she was engaged to one of her cousins, and when Miskeen informed him that Hadi had eloped with the girl, he agreed that his son should be killed.

SP Baloch said that if anyone could prove that a jirga had decided that the couple should be murdered, then they should help the police locate the venue and members of the jirga.

The police are also looking into the possibility of the involvement of Hussaini’s cousin and his father in the double murder, for which the law enforcers are conducting raids.

‘This is Karachi!’

Taking notice of the couple’s murder, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has directed police chief IGP AD Khowaja to submit a report on the case. “This is Karachi! How did a jirga convene here? How can a jirga award a death sentence to a couple for contracting love marriage?”

Khowaja has directed West SSP Younus Chandio to immediately provide him with a detailed inquiry report, including the steps taken by the police to solve the double murder.

Home Minister Suhail Siyal has sought a report on the double murder from West DIGP Larik, directing the officer to arrest the jirga members and take strict action against them.