MANSEHRA: The police on Tuesday foiled an attempt by a man to bury his slain wife and a daughter in a remote village of Pulrah area here.

“The man, who had allegedly killed his wife, 18, and two-and-a-half-year-old daughter either by strangling or poisoning them over unknown reasons, made an attempt to bury them clandestinely, but we foiled his bid and shifted the bodies to a health facility for medico-legal formalities,” district police officer Zahoor Babar Afridi told reporters.

He said the police received a phone call that a young woman and her daughter had been murdered. “The police acted promptly and blocked their burial in remote Pulrah area.”

“SHO Pulrah police station Samsam Bukhari along with a party stopped the burial of the woman and her daughter, and shifted their bodies to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital,” Mr Afridi said.

He said the bodies of woman and her daughter were handed over to her parents for burial after doctors completed medico-legal formalities.

“The accused, Mohammad Ilyas, managed to escape when the police reached the spot,” DPO Mr Afridi said.

He said raids were being carried out to arrest him.

The DPO said an autopsy report would be collected by the police from the health facility within the next 24 hours, which would help establish the exact cause behind the deaths.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2024