‘Suitor’ kills himself after shooting girl to death
By Tahir Siddiqui
KARACHI: A 26-year-old divorced man killed himself on Monday moments after he shot dead a 14-year-old girl he wanted to marry, witnesses and police said.
The Airport police said that Mohammed Iftikhar, son of Mohammed Aslam, a resident of CAA Colony, killed the teenaged girl, Aasiya, daughter of Karam Din, and then shot himself dead at around 9.30am near the girl’s house.
Residents said that the dejected suitor, son of a retired employee of the Civil Aviation Authority, did nothing for a living, though he was a plumber by profession.
The bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a medical examination.
Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal section told Dawn that both the victims received a single bullet each to their temples from point-blank range as the bullets went through their skulls.
They said that the girl was brought fatally wounded to hospital and she died shortly after the arrival.
The young man’s father told Dawn that he had taken the proposal of his son to the girl’s family who, however, turned it down.
“I knew my son wanted to marry Aasiya, but it never occurred to me that he could go to that extent,” he added.
He said that his son, eldest among four siblings, left the house at around 9.30am after taking Rs10 from him to buy gutka.
“After a little while we heard gunshots and the neighbours rushed to us to say that my son was lying shot near the house,” he added.
He said that he had recently retired from the CAA. “I was thinking of approaching my senior officers for my son’s job,” he added.
The rejected suitor’s younger brother, Fayyaz, who is an auto-mechanic, told Dawn that his brother had been married some six years back, but he divorced his wife a year ago as the couple remained childless.
He said that the girl’s family, hailing from Och Sharif, Bahawalpur, rejected his brother’s proposal as he was jobless.
The girl’s father, a gardener in the CAA, told Dawn that he had rejected the young man’s proposal as the girl was already engaged to a relative. He said that the victim girl was eldest among his five daughters and her two elder brothers lived separately.
He said that the girl’s mother lost consciousness when she learnt about the killing of her daughter. “She is still in a state of shock,” he added.
Assistant sub-inspector Raja Anver of the Airport police said that the police had seized the pistol the rejected suitor had used in his and the girl’s killing. “It is an unlicensed pistol,” he added.
The police official said that a case against the young man would be lodged for possessing the illegal pistol as the police were required under the law to account for the recovery of the contraband weapon.
He said that no murder case would be registered against the young man.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/14/2009