The mystery surrounding the murder of a Pakistani-origin British woman has been solved with her former husband confessing to having killed her for marrying a person from the Shia sect, police said on Saturday.
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Samia Shahid, 28, was found dead on July 20 at her parents’ house in Mangla area of Jhelum district in Punjab province.
Chaudhry Shakeel admitted that he strangled Samia to death because he did not approve of her activities.
He said police are also investigating the role of Samia’s parents for abetment to murder.
The BBC is reporting today that Ms Shahid’s first husband, Choudhry Shakeel, has been arrested on suspicion of her murder while her father Mohammad has been held as an accessory to murder. Her husband, Mukhtar Syed Kazam, said he believed his wife was killed because her family disapproved of their marriage.
Court has cancelled rejected bail plea of accused Chaudhry Shakeel in Samia murder case, a UK Bradford resident who came to Pakistan to see her family and was murdered in what was reported as an “honour killing”, reported Saturday.
Ms Shahid’s family has previously strongly denied any involvement in her death. Mr Kazam, from Bradford, said his wife moved to live with him in Dubai a year ago but had made trips to the United Kingdom to talk to her parents about the relationship.
Police said the latest forensic report had confirmed Samia died an unnatural death. She then married Kazim of Taxila in September 2014 and both started living in Dubai.
Reportedly, she was told that her father was not well and she needed to come back and see him.
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“The forensic report has been received by a three-member special investigation committee set up by chief minister Punjab and according to it Samia Shahid’s death occurred due to asphyxia”, Abubakar Khuda Bakhsh, the chief investigator, said. He has alleged her family of murdering his wife because they were not happy with her marriage.
