GUJRAT: A couple was gunned down in their house over their daughter’s divorce row at Kartowal village in Malakwal police precincts in Mandi Bahauddin district on Friday.

The police sources say that Ashraf Gondal and his wife Zohra Bibi were asleep when the suspect, Qasim, along with his armed accomplices, barged in and shot them dead.

The armed suspects fled the scene after the double murder.

Police reached the spot and shifted the bodies to the Malakwal Tehsil Headquarters Hospital where doctors conducted the autopsy. The bodies were later handed over the the heirs.

Police and local sources say that the couple’s daughter had been married to the brother of the main suspect, Qasim. However, their daughter later got divorce through a civil suit.

They said the suspect nurtured a grudge against the victims over the issue and killed them to avenge “the disgrace to his family”.

The police have registered a case against five nominated and three unidentified suspects under sections 302, 109, 148 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the report of Arshad Mehmood, brother of Ashraf Gondal, and started investigation.

arrested: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested three passengers with fake travel documents at the Sialkot International Airport on Friday.

Those arrested were identified as Muhammad Rasheed, Zain Ali and Abu Bakar.

A spokesman for the FIA said Rasheed’s name was in the ‘stop list’ due to his involvement in murder and attempted murder cases registered with the Hajipura Police Station of Sialkot. The authorities detained Rasheed and handed over to police.

Abu Bakar had reached the airport from Saudi Arabia and his passport was found tampered with. He had gone to Saudi Arabia on pretext of performing Umrah from Lahore where his agent had got a fake Bosnian visa for him at the cost of Rs3.2m. The agent stamped a fake Bosnian visa in Saudi Arabia on his passport but he was not allowed to travel to the country by the Saudi authorities. He returned to Sialkot and tore away the passport page which had the fake visa.

Zain Ali’s Pakistani passport and a visa for Portugal were found to be fake, which he had got from an agent after paying Rs3.5m. He tried to board a flight for Italy via Turkiye but his attempt was foiled by the Turkish authorities and he was deported to Pakistan.

Two of the suspects were handed over to anti-human trafficking cell of FIA Gujranwala zone for investigation.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2024