‘First husband murdered her for wedding against parents’ wishes’

ISLAMABAD: The former husband of a British-Pakistani woman, who was strangled to death in Pakistan last month, confessed on Saturday that he had killed her because she had married against the wishes of her family.

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According to local police reports, Samia Shahid’s ex-husband Mohammad Shakeel told to the police that he strangled Shahid to death with her own dupatta. The confession came after Shakeel and Shahid’s father were arrested by police and presented in court.

Police official Aqeel Abbas, who is the investigating officer in the case, told local media that Shakeel, who was on pre-arrest bail, was held with Shahid’s father, Muhammad Shahid, after a local court did not extend bail. Abbas said both men would remain in custody for four days in Jhelum.

Shahid, 28, from Bradford, was killed while on a visit to her family in Jhelum last month. In his complaint to police, her husband Syed Mukhtar Kazim, a Shia, said he believed his wife was killed because her family, which is Sunni, disapproved of their marriage as the two belonged to different sects. Muhammad had denied the charge and said his daughter died of natural causes.

At a press conference last week, Kazim insisted the death was an “honour killing” and presented a copy of a post-mortem report which said the 28-year-old had marks on her neck, suggesting she was strangled.

Police said the latest forensic report had confirmed Samia died an unnatural death. “The forensic report has been received by a three-member special investigation committee set up by chief minister of Punjab and according to it Samia Shahid’s death occurred due to asphyxia,” Abubakar Khuda Bakhsh, the chief investigator, said.