By Azfar-ul-Ashfaque

KARACHI: A woman and her male relative were killed by her in-laws on Saturday in a shanty town of Bhains Colony in the jurisdiction of the Sukkun police station.

The area SHO, Mohammad Ali Dhamrah, said that a couple of days ago, Rahila, 40, the mother of seven, left her home after developing some differences with her husband Lal Mohammad, a transporter by profession. She went to the house of one of her relatives, Ajmal, a driver of Shama Coach who worked with the victim woman’s husband, police said.

He said the woman’s husband found her at Ajmal’s home and he, along with his two brothers Saifullah and Abdullah, forced Rahila and Ajmal to return to their Bhains Colony residence.

He said that the husband and wife had quarrelled again at their home and Lal Mohammad, with the help of his brothers, hit Rahila with a spade and an axe before hitting Ajmal’s head with the same weapons. The three suspects managed to escape, however.

The police said the suspects and the victim woman hailed from Waziristan, the NWFP.

The SHO said that the police reached the scene and found Ajmal, 35, dead. They shifted the badly injured Rahila to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where she also died.

A case (FIR 243/09) was registered on the complaint of Rahila’s father, Abdul Rauf, against his son-in-law, Lal Mohammad, and his two brothers, Saifullah and Abdullah, under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Sukkun police station.

The police were investigating the matter and it was premature to say whether this was a case of honour killing or a simple family feud, the SHO added.
Source: Dawn
Date:8/23/2009