KHUSHAB: A man shot his 11-year-old daughter after his wife complained that she could no longer live with her stepdaughter.

According to police officials, Khushab’s tehsil Quaidabad’s village Itra resident Muhammad Ehsan shot and killed his minor daughter after her stepmother argued with him.

A servant in the house told police officials that Ehsan had had divorced his first wife Aleena three years ago and tied the knot for the second time with Razia. “He had two children from his first wife Asiya, 11, and Muhammad Rizwan, 10,” the servant told police.

“Two years ago Ehsan managed to get full custody of both his kids by pressuring his wife and threatening her. Ever since the children have been here they have been treated terribly,” he said, adding that Razia often beat up both children and asked Ehsan to send them away.

Asiya’s mother Aleena told police officials that Razia had been complaining about her daughter to her ex-husband for several months. “Recently he brought Asiya to me and said that she was misbehaving with his wife on my directions. My daughter had been badly beaten and she was bruised,” Aleena said. “I told her to try and pull along with her stepmother because otherwise things would get harder for her but Razia kept pressuring Ehsan to ‘discipline her’,” she said.

On Friday evening, Asiya’s stepmother Razia complained to Ehsan that his daughter had not washed the dishes properly and had been bad mouthing her. “I saw the whole thing. Asiya had just come back from school and she asked her to wash the dishes. When she did, Razia later said she hadn’t done a good job and called her father to beat her,” a servant at the house said. “He came down the stairs yelling at his daughter saying that she had been badmouthing Razia even though she had done no such thing,” he said. Several people told police officials that Ehsan interrogated his daughter about insulting her stepmother at gun point. “When she kept denying that she said anything he shot her,” he added.

Quaidabad police registered a case on the complaint of the victim’s mother Aleena. Police officials have sent Asiya’s body for an autopsy and are searching for Ehsan, who fled the district. “We are searching for both Ehsan and Razia but they have fled the district.

Asiya’s brother Rizwan has been handed over to the Child Protection Bureau (CPB). “We tried questioning the boy but he is in shock and hasn’t said anything yet,” said inspector Muneer Ali.

Aleena said that she was going to try to regain custody of her son.
Source: The Express Tribune
Date:11/20/2011