Two men have had a case registered against them in regard to the death of a British Pakistani woman in Lahore’s DHA area, it emerged on Tuesday.
The woman, who was identified as Mahira, was found in her rental house in DHA, Lahore. According to reports, she was shot in the head. The woman had been living in the upper portion of the rental house along with a friend, while her family still resided in the UK.
The first information report (FIR) against two purported friends of Mahira on murder charges was registered by the Defence-B police late on Monday on the complaint of the deceased woman’s uncle.
The uncle, Mohammad Nazeer, in the application stated that Mahira told him during a visit that her friends Zahir Jadoon and Saad Ameer Butt were threatening her with “dire consequences”.
Moreover, Nazeer said that Mahira had said she feared for her life.
It emerged that the reason behind the dispute between the three parties was that one suspect, Saad, had been forcing Mahira to marry him, while Zahir also wanted to marry her. However, Mahira had outright refused to marry either of them, according to the FIR.
Nazeer said that he had intended to talk to the two men in order to make them understand. However, before he had the chance to, the uncle received a call from Mahira’s father (his brother-in-law) from London on Monday afternoon who informed him that somebody had shot Mahira.
The complainant said that he rushed to Mahira’s residence in DHA Phase V and found her lying in a pool of blood. She had died and was bleeding from the neck, the FIR said.
Nazeer said that he suspected that Zahir and Saad along with their two unknown accomplices had murdered Mahira at around 4-5am on Monday after careful planning. On his complaint, a case was registered against the suspects under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Cantt Operations Superintendent of Police Sayyed Ali earlier told Dawn that an unidentified caller had alerted police about the murder and after that forensic experts visited and cordoned off the scene.
He said that the woman was lying in a pool of blood in her room with her mobile phone near her body.
“We have seized the mobile phone for forensic analysis,” the SP said, adding that police teams were also trying to access the nearby CCTV cameras’ footage to check the movement of any suspect.
SP Sayyed said that they had also contacted the parents and other family members of the deceased abroad to get details from them.
“We are also after two suspects and will share further details at a later stage,” the police said, adding that Mahira’s friend who was living with her at the same house shared no useful detail.
Due to travel restrictions because of Covid-19, the deceased’s family was unable to travel to Pakistan. Police were earlier trying to convince her parents to make any close relative living in Lahore the complainant of the case.
