Pakistan police say murder of Sikh man plotted by fiancée who didn’t want to marry him

18-year-old Prem Kumari promised hitmen Rs 7 lakh and paid part of amount in advance to get rid of Parvinder Singh as she was keen to marry a Muslim friend

PESHAWAR

Parvinder Singh, who was found murdered in a field in Peshwar district of Pakistan, on January 5. Police said his fiancée got him murdered by contract killers at Mardan and the body was later disposed of at Chamakani, a village near Peshawar. (Twitter)

The death of a 25-year-old Sikh man in Pakistan has turned out to be a “contract killing”, according to the police, who arrested her fiancée, who did not want to marry him.

On Saturday, Parvinder Singh was shot dead by gunmen weeks before his marriage in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. His killing drew sharp condemnation from India which demanded exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the crime.

The murder of Parvinder has now been solved and his 18-year-old fiancée, Prem Kumari, has been arrested for her alleged involvement in plotting the murder, the police said.

A senior security official told The Express Tribune on Thursday that it was a “contract killing” paid for by Prem Kumari, who didn’t want to marry Parvinder, who lived in the remote Shangla district of the province.

“She promised the hitmen Rs 7 lakh for his murder,” the official said. “A part of the committed money was paid in advance, while the rest had to be paid after the murder.”

The investigation team – led by Peshawar’s capital city police officer – cracked the murder after four days of investigation in which officials from other investigative and intelligence agencies also provided clues, the report said.

Their wedding was fixed for January 28.

The police said that Parvinder and Prem loved each other and their engagement was done with their consent and both even started preparations for the wedding.

However, Prem later started friendship with a Muslim boy who happened to be the brother of her friend. The police said that Prem called Parvinder to Mardan and took him to a home where Prem’s friend with other accomplices killed him.

The killers later took the body from Mardan to Peshawar and threw it in a field near Chamakani, a rural area of Peshawar district where police found the body on January 5.

SHE AGREED TO CONVERT

Prem even agreed to convert to marry the Muslim friend, the police said, adding they are trying to arrest the other accused.

Prem’s family lives in Mohallah Sherdad Abad Mardan district. Her father is a Hindu and mother a Sikh.

Parvinder had returned to Pakistan after spending six years working in Malaysia.

The murder took place a day after a mob attacked Gurdwara Nankana Sahib where Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev was born.

India on Sunday strongly condemned the “targeted killing” of the minority Sikh community member in Peshawar.

Minorities in Muslim-majority Pakistan make up some 2% of the country’s total population.

Pakistan has witnessed violence against religious minorities in the past as al-Qaeda and Taliban-led militants regularly target Christian, Sikhs, Hindus, Ahmadiyyas and Shiite communities in the country.