Pregnant woman’s murder: in-laws arrested after chilling confession

SIALKOT: A nine-month pregnant woman allegedly killed by her in-laws in Daska, Punjab, it emerged. The victim, who was identified as Zara, had tied the knot her first cousin, had returned from Saudi Arabia a month ago, where her husband is currently living.

According to police investigators, the perpetrators,after smothering her to death, dismembered the victim’s body, stuffed it into a sack and dumped in a drainage channel.

The victim woman’s husband was reportedly unaware of the gruesome crime. The perpetrators — identified as the mother-in-law, Sughran; sister-in-law, Yasmin; and two others, including a relative named Abdullah — have confessed to the heinous crime during police investigation. 

According to the investigators, Sughran, the victim’s mother-in-law, was also her maternal aunt. 

According to a report in the BBC Urdu, the chilling crime came to light when the victim’s father, unable to contact his daughter for several days, filed a police report suspecting foul play. The police promptly arrested the suspects, who admitted to orchestrating the murder. 

Also read: Man gets 25-year jail term for murdering sister-in-law

Investigations revealed that the victim, Zara, married her cousin, Abdul Qadir, four years ago and had been living with him in Saudi Arabia.

Despite her residence abroad, she often visited Pakistan with their two-and-a-half-year-old son. She returned to her hometown a month ago while expecting her second child. 

According to the police, during this visit, Zara initially stayed with her parents but was lured back to her in-laws’ home, where she was killed while she slept. 

The motive, investigators said, stemmed from Sughran’s jealousy. She resented Zara for her close relationship with her son and for the financial support Abdul Qadir regularly sent to his wife. Sughran reportedly feared that Zara, pregnant into nine-month, would solidify her influence over her son. 

Sughran also accused Zara of witchcraft on her son.

According to the police, when attempts to coerce Abdul Qadir into divorcing his wife failed, Sughran, with the help of her daughter Yasmin, planned the murder. 

They said that Sughran convinced a relative, Naveed, by promising him assistance in moving abroad if he helped carry out the crime. Together, the four suspects suffocated Zara to death, disfigured her face by burning it, and dismembered her body before disposing of it in a drainage channel. 

Police traced the suspects through CCTV footage from the neighbourhood, which captured Naveed and Sughran purchasing a butcher’s knife and cleaver. 

Zara, a mother of a toddler and on the verge of giving birth to her second child, met a horrifying fate, leaving behind a trail of grief and unanswered questions.