SAHIWAL: Close relatives turned out to be killers of murder victims in two cases in district Pakpattan.

A nephew turned out to be the murderer of a trader whose sacked body was found at Khader Canal near the village Saddu Piplee, 7km from Pakpattan city on Monday.

Police confirmed Adil Rafiq (55) who was reportedly missing since Sunday was strangled to death by his nephew, identified as Farhan.

District Police Officer Tariq Walayat, told Dawn that Farhan was arrested by the Farid Nagar Police and he confessed to committing the murder. Police are also investigating Farhan’s fiancé, a widow named Saima, who helped him in disposing of his uncle’s body from the city.

Police investigation revealed that Farhan had got married with his first cousin, Uzma Ashraf, a niece of Rafiq three years back. The couple’s domestic relationship remained bad from the day one. Uzma was divorced by Farhan after five months. Uzma was pregnant at the time of the divorce. Later, she gave birth to a daughter at her parents’ in Faisalabad but did not allow Farhan to see their daughter.

For the last one and a half years, Farhan had been pressuring his uncle, Adil Rafiq, to convince Uzma and her parents to return the baby to him. Rafiq refused Farhan’s demand multiple times and suggested it’s better that the baby remained in her mother’s custody. This infuriated Farhan.

On Sunday, when Adil Rafiq closed his shop at Farid Nagar Chowk, Farhan forcefully took him to his house nearby. He again put the same demand before his uncle who refused once again. At this, Farhan took out his pistol and injured his leg and foot with bullet wounds. Later, he strangled his uncle with his waist cord and a cotton sheet.

During interrogation, Farhan told the investigators that he killed Adil in three attempts. Later, he called his friend, Saima-a widow who was his neighbour. They packed a dead body in a sack and disposed it of near a village along Khader Canal.

The DPO said police were interrogating Saima and other suspects. SHO Afzal Jatoi said police added murder sections to already registered kidnap case.

In another case, the complainant turned out to be the killer of his pregnant wife in the Saddar Police Station area of Pakpattan.

Taimoor Taj (24), a resident of Chak 21/EB, tehsil Arifwala, had reported to police that his wife, Sidra, was killed by three unidentified robbers when they were returning home after her medical checkup on Jan 21.

According to the FIR, Sidra had got two bullets — one in the stomach and the other in her head. Taimoor had claimed he did not stop when the robbers signaled him to do so near the village.

DPO Walayat and his team found the Taimoor’s story suspicious as he had claimed the robbers had fired from the back but the forensic analysis of the crime scene found one of the bullet casings under Sidra’s body. Police suspected that she was shot in the head from point blank. Sidra’s brother Muzamil also feared that her sister was murdered by her husband.

During the investigation, police found Taimoor’s behaviour suspicious as he was not coordinating with police and once he hid himself in one of his lawyer friend’s house.

After his arrest, Taimoor Taj admitted that he had a relationship with another woman for the last six years but his family married him with Sidra. When she got pregnant, he decided to get rid of her and planned to kill her.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2024