By Tahir Siddiqui
KARACHI: A 21-year-old woman and her relative were axed to death on Wednesday at her house in a Landhi locality allegedly by her 22-year-old husband and his elder brother.
The Shah Latif Town police said that the suspect, Rashid Khan Tanoli, son of Dilbar Khan Tanoli, hailing from Mansehra, came to the police station at around 3pm and said that he had killed his wife, Shazia, and her 24-year-old relative, Jan Mohammed, after he saw them together in his Qazafi Town house. They said that the police reached the crime-scene and found the victims in a pool of blood.
The police said an initial investigation into the double murder also indicated that the suspect, a factory worker, along with his brother, Asif Khan Tanoli, murdered the victims.
The area senior police officer (SPO), DSP Jabbar Qaimkhani, told Dawn that Shazia’s elder sister had been married to Jan Mohammed and the victim sent a proposal for Shazia after the death of his wife some one and a half years ago.
He said his proposal was rejected by the woman’s family as Shazia was already engaged to the suspect. The SPO quoted the suspect as saying that he had suspected an illicit relationship between his wife and her former brother-in-law since their marriage a year ago.
He said Jam Mohammed’s brother, Taj Mohammed, told the police that the suspect owed Rs10,000 to his brother and Rashid had called his brother on Tuesday night over the phone and asked him to collect the money on Wednesday.
According to the victim’s brother, the SPO said, Jan Mohammed had gone to the suspect’s house to collect the money.
He said that during the preliminary interrogation the suspect broke down and admitted that he had called the victim to his house.
The suspect told the police that his elder brother hit Jan Mohammed on the head with an axe and then he took the axe from his brother and hit the neck and chest of the victim with it.
Suspect Tanoli stated that his wife took shelter in the kitchen as he and his brother killed Jan Mohammed and then he brought the woman to the room and axed her to death. The SPO said the suspect’s elder brother fled and the police were making efforts to track him down.
He said a case against the two brothers would be registered on the complaint of Jan Mohammed’s brother, Taj Mohammed. The bodies were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for autopsies.
Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal section told Dawn that the young woman’s throat was slit and she also received wounds on her chest. They said the man received a fatal wound to his head. He also received wounds in his chest, the sources added.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/21/2009
