Slain by brother for daring to love

FOR SHAKIR, there is no greater crime than daring to love. Which is why, on Sunday he stole into the female surgical ward of the Meerut Medical College and Hospital and chopped the head off his 18-year-old sister Nargis.

FOR SHAKIR, there is no greater crime than daring to love. Which is why, on Sunday he stole into the female surgical ward of the Meerut Medical College and Hospital and chopped the head off his 18-year-old sister Nargis.

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Her father, the police said, not only watched the gruesome murder unfold before his eyes but also allowed his son to slink off into the darkness outside, satisfied that the young woman had been punished for eloping with a man from a different caste.

Horrified screams of the patients, where Nargis was sleeping, alerted the doctors and nurses, who then called the police. A hunt has been launched for Shakir while Nargis's father is being questioned.

Blinded by rage, it was Shakir who had stabbed the girl on December 18 after she returned with her husband to the Khaddarwal colony of Muzaffarnagar. The village panchayat had also tried to pressure the couple but they stood their ground. Naris was admitted to the medical college in a critical condition. She was kept in the emergency ward and then shifted to the female surgical ward on Sunday. "She was recovering fast and doctors had decided to release her on Tuesday," said Usha Sharma, principal of the college. During her stay in the hospital, her father and elder sister were by her side.