By Imran Ayub
KARACHI: A teenaged girl was shot dead in the Sultanabad area along M.T. Khan Road on Saturday allegedly by her brother-in-law and his younger brother in a running dispute over the rejection of a marriage proposal, said witnesses and police.
The heart-rending incident caused hundreds of residents to gather outside the home of Hamdullah, the father of the victim. Police said he was at work when his nephews, including his son-in-law, came to his house with a friend of theirs, forced their way into it and killed his 18-year-old- daughter, Ambreen.
“The incident is the result of a family dispute,” said Sub-Inspector Nasir-ul-Hasan, the SHO of the Jackson police station, which called a charity organisation’s ambulance and shifted the body to the Civil Hospital Karachi for medico-legal formalities.
“We have identified the criminals behind the killing. All of the three escaped after the incident and we have found at least four casings of spent bullets of a TT pistol.”
Officials associated with the investigation section of the police station later came to know about the motive behind the killing after the lodging of a case (FIR 878/2009) under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s father, Hamdullah, against his two nephews Imtiaz, Hasan Ghulam and their common friends Wazeer Butt.
“Hamdullah’s elder daughter is married to Hasan Ghulam,” said Sub-Inspector Rustam Khan Khattak, the senior investigation officer at the Jackson police station. “A few days ago, Hasan Ghulam and his family sought Ambreen’s hand in marriage for Imtiaz, but the proposal was turned down by the Hamdullah family.”
He said the reason for the rejection of the proposal by the family was not clear, but it seemed that they were not happy with the marriage of their elder daughter with Hasan Ghulam. The elders from the two sides intervened and arranged several sittings to settle the issue, but failed.
“In the first half of the day on Saturday, as stated by Hamdullah’s family members, three men including their son-in-law and his younger brother knocked at their door at D-479 in Sultanabad near Old Haji Camp,” he said.
“On the first knock when they were denied access into the house, Imtiaz and Hasan Ghulam allegedly forced their way into the house and one of them pulled out his TT pistol and fired several shots at Ambreen,” he said, adding that the exact identity of the shooter was not known, though Ambreen’s family alleged it was Imtiaz who had fired the shots.
The medico-legal officer of the Civil Hospital Karachi told Dawn that the girl was hit by three bullets, two in the face and one in the head.
All the three suspects escaped after the shooting, leaving the victim’s mother and a younger brother in a state of shock. Later, they called the police, who said the victim’s family was badly traumatised and angry, declining all possible cooperation with the investigators to meet the required formalities.
“The victim’s father, Hamdullah, is a driver, employed at a bungalow in Clifton,” said Sub-Inspector Khattak, the SIO at the Jackson police station. “He is the father of three sons and two daughters, including the one killed today. He originally hails from Hangu in the NWFP, and so do the two suspects who are his nephews.”
He said a team visited the victim’s home after the incident, but the family refused to cooperate with the officials saying that they were preparing to leave for their hometown after the burial.
Source: Dawn
Date:12/20/2009
