A 20-year-old pregnant mother of two was found dead earlier this week in Multan, allegedly murdered by her husband, it has emerged.
According to the first information report (FIR), a case was registered at the New Multan police station invoking sections 302 (intentional murder), 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The FIR, which narrated the victim’s father’s complaint, stated that he received a call on Tuesday at 9am from a police official, who asked him to head to her daughter’s residence.
The complaint said that after the family reached the scene, they found the victim hanging from a ceiling fan.
It said that when the forensic specialist arrived at the scene and tried to untie the noose around the victim’s neck, it opened up quite easily.
It said that a doctor present at the scene said that the victim had died at 6pm that day.
The complainant quoted the doctor as saying that the victim’s jaw was found broken, adding that marks of rope were also found on the victim’s feet.
It added that signs of torture were also visible on the victim’s body while both her eyes were bruised.
Signs of torture were found on her ribs as well, while both of her elbows were injured, it said.
The FIR said that the victim was five to six months pregnant at the time of her death.
It said that the suspect, the husband, had fled the scene and did not even inform the family of their daughter’s death.
The suspect had lied to the victim’s family at the time of their marriage and was already married to another woman, the complainant stated.
The family had filed a case in the family court against the suspect, however, the case was eventually retracted.
The husband kept on threatening his wife and pressured her to sell the house she owned, the FIR said.
It also said that the suspect had visited the complainant a few days before the victim’s death and had threatened that he would kill her if the property in her name was not transferred to him.
The complainant said that his daughter was murdered by her husband, who was after her property and the matter was being “portrayed as a suicide”.
Upon the instructions of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, Provincial Minister for Social Welfare and Finance Punjab Sohail Shaukat Butt and Chairperson Women Protection Authority MPA Hina Parvez Butt met the victim’s family in Multan.
Butt, while offering condolences, said that a complete investigation into the matter would be carried out, adding that a joint investigation team had already been constituted for the case.
“More evidence will be obtained by exhuming the grave,” the provincial minister said.
Earlier this week, a woman was murdered by her in-laws over a delay in preparing food. A 20-year-old woman was found dead near Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway in Swabi on Wednesday. A woman’s dead body was found in her room in Bannu last Friday.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday took notice of an alleged domestic violence case involving anchorperson Ayesha Jahanzeb and her husband, stating that violence against women was her “Red Line”.
Separately, anchorperson Ayesha Jahanzeb filed an FIR against her husband and said that Haris Ali habitually tortured her and was abusive since the beginning of their marriage, adding that he had threatened to kill her last month while torturing her.
“Women are my red line, any sort of torture committed on the domestic or working women will not be tolerated,” the chief minister had said.
