Father-in-law, four others held for woman’s ‘honour’ killing

Police have exhumed the body of a young woman who was allegedly murdered by her in-laws in the name of honour on August 28 and then buried at a graveyard in Gulshan-e-Maymar. Five suspects, including the woman’s father-in-law, have been arrested for the incident.

Police claimed on Wednesday that the woman’s father-in-law, namely Saifur Rehman, and other relatives had killed her and then buried her body at a graveyard in Janjar Goth. They said the body was exhumed under the supervision of a judicial magistrate and then shifted to the Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi.

Her post-mortem examination was also conducted in the presence of the judicial magistrate, as well as additional police surgeon Dr Qarar Abbasi, medico-legal officer Dr Sumayan, Dr Sonu and investigating officer Haji Imtiaz, they added. The police officials said samples of the victim have also been sent to the laboratory for chemical examination in order to ascertain the actual cause of her death.

IO Haji Imtiaz said the victim’s father-in-law, his brother Ramzan and other relatives, namely Yousuf, Jan Alam and Uryadullah, gunned down the woman inside their home in the Bhittaiabad area, in the Sachal police jurisdiction, and then buried her body at a local graveyard.

The officer said the men had killed the woman over “honour”, adding that the police had arrested the five identified suspects on the information provided by the police informer about the incident.

The IO said the police later exhumed the victim’s body on the information provided by the detainees, adding that the woman was murdered after a jirga decided that she should be killed for “honour”.

Citing the initial autopsy report, Dr Abbasi said the woman was shot at least seven times and her body also bore several marks of torture. The woman had married a man named Usman some three months before her murder. Her husband is believed to be working in Balochistan’s Sibi city.

Police said they were trying to trace and arrest the remaining family members and relatives who might be involved in the murder. They have registered FIR No 466/18 against the suspects on behalf of the state and initiated further investigations.

Earlier this week, a woman and a man were found dead in a house in a slum area near Lyari Expressway. The woman’s husband and father have been arrested for the double murder that was allegedly committed over honour.

Prime suspect Sabir Mehsud works abroad and had returned to the country to spend Eidul Azha with his family, according to initial police investigations. He took his first wife and their children from Karachi to their hometown North Waziristan for the religious festival and returned to the city three days ago.

Since then he was living with his second wife, identified as 24-year-old Ismat, her father Khair Muhammad, who is also Mehsud’s maternal uncle, and other family members in a slum area located in Block 21 of Federal B Industrial Area.

“I woke up around 2:30am and did not find my wife in the room,” Mehsud told the police after his arrest. “After I left the room to find her, I found the door of another room locked from the inside and it did not open despite knocking on it several times.”

Mehsud later broke down the door and found his 18-year-old relative Umair Alam, who was also their neighbour, inside the room. “I was enraged when I saw my wife with him. I started beating him up and then strangled him to death with a dupatta.”

Citing the revelations made during the interrogation, SHO Shafiqur Rehman said the wife met the same fate. “Her father also helped Mehsud kill her in the name of honour. We have arrested both men for the murders.”

The police had been called in as neighbours started gathering after a hue and cry was raised from the house, but the murders had already been committed by the time the law enforcers arrived on the scene.

The bodies were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where the examiners confirmed that both the woman and the teenager were strangled to death and that they were beaten up before they were murdered.

Police officials said the prime suspect had managed to escape after committing the murders, but they arrested him later after they conducted a search operation in the locality.

The law enforcers said the bodies were handed over to the heirs, adding that they were waiting for the family to register a case after the funerals and burials.