Sometimes a captive imagination is far more powerful than any reality. An apt example is a small report that announced the end of a young couple who were found dead in their bedroom on the morning after their marriage. Little did they know that their quiet story would ring out loud in so many hearts and spawn rapt attention. People have not only drawn their own conclusions as they do in the midst of celluloid suspense, but also hankered for more. Nothing grips the human mind like a young life cut short by unforeseen tragedy.

On the surface, Mohammed Azeem and Beenish Zaheer had everything to live for. They were last seen alive as a bridal couple who had defeated formidable opposition and married for love. Their romance took root in their years at the NED University of Engineering & Technology where they were studying to become electrical engineers. A long courtship led to marriage when Azeem joined Seimens. On their wedding day, the two returned from the marriage hall at 2.30am and were found dead by Azeem’s mother at 11am. The police say that Beenish died at close to 6am and the groom passed away a few hours later.

The lead up to the wedding, it seems, had many moments of despair for Azeem. One of his close friends recalls that the troubled groom forbade him from entering a love marriage or marrying when poor. He says that Azeem, the only son of a memon biddi-maker, had taken loans to the tune of over 200,000 for his marriage and had put up a long, painful fight to be with Beenish. His family was able to do very little for his wedding and Azeem had put it together with the support of his friends.

Ejaz Hashmi, supervisory police officer (SPO) of Azizabad who is heading the investigating team, says that the post mortem has revealed strangulation marks on Beenish and signs of suffocation with a pillow with dried blood around her mouth.

The young bride belonged to a small family comprising her mother, now incoherent with anguish and a brother, Danish employed at a pharmaceutical company. “I don’t know of any resistance towards the marriage. Both families are at a loss and want to know what happened to two young and healthy people,” he says with caution.

Whether this is murder, another unexplained death or a case of loving to death, the two families have been condemned to a lifetime of memories that will never lose their horror. But faceless recurring nightmares are far harder to grapple with. Since there is precious little to resurrect the forensic department, these beleaguered families may have to prepare themselves for some unanswered questions. Insiders say that the abundance of fingerprints on half-consumed Energile glasses in the room, the jewellery and furniture as well as the victims make it an open and shut case had necessary expertise been available.

For now, they have to live by the wedding portraits, the only reminders of their happy past. And on the hope that a month of media attention and some fame is not where this story and many like it, will end. Perhaps, in the not so distant future, the marks they leave can be read in more ways than one.