RAWALPINDI: The mysterious death of a 17-year-old girl in the Syed Kasran area of Jatli has turned out to be a case of honour killing after the deceased’s mother revealed that her uncle, who was also the father of her fiancé, poisoned the girl after she was brought back to home following her attempt to run away.

The police exhumed the grave on Tuesday, and a postmortem was also conducted. The samples will now be sent to the Forensic Science Agency for analysis.

The police subsequently registered a case on murder, concealment of crime and testimony, and other charges and started conducting raids to arrest the primary accused, the uncle of the deceased, in light of a statement recorded by the mother.

The mother told the police that her daughter, a first-year student, had been engaged to the son of her uncle and that they shared the same house.

17-year-old was fed ‘wheat pills’ after she attempted to elope; body exhumed, samples sent for analysis

According to the mother, her daughter disappeared on February 3, and her husband and the brother-in-law went out to search for her and returned home with her at 1am. After that, the uncle took the girl to a room, and the next morning, the daughter was found dead in her bed. Subsequently, she was buried quietly to cover up the murder.

The mother informed the police that her brother-in-law told her in the presence of her husband that her daughter had eloped with someone and he gave her poisonous pills. The father also confirmed the incident. Similarly, the prime suspect, the uncle of the girl, confessed to killing her would-be daughter-in-law in a written statement, the police said.

The case, registered under sections 302, 201, and 311 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), had been referred to Sub-Inspector Israr Hussain, the head of the Homicide Investigation Unit at the Jatli police station, for further investigation.

Talking to Dawn, Station House Officer (SHO) Jatli, Asmat Aura confirmed that the case was registered against the victim’s uncle. When questioned if the suspect had been arrested, SHO Aura said raids were being carried out to arrest him.

A police spokesperson told Dawn that they would also interrogate the father over the course of the investigation and if found guilty he would also be charged under relevant sections of the penal code.

It may be noted that the incident came to light when a detective foot constable posted on security duty at Jatli police station submitted a report that he was on duty when he received information from sources that a 17-year-old girl disappeared from home on February 3 at 8pm. When she was found missing from her home, her father and uncle went in search of her, and finally, when they reached Syed Adda, they found her and brought her back to her home.

The next day, the news of the girl’s death spread in the area as she was buried in a local graveyard the same day. It was suspected that someone in the family poisoned or strangled the girl in the name of honour and buried her to hide the crime.

After the incident came to light, the police registered a daily report under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and started an investigation based on speculations making rounds in the area and the DFC report.

Later, the police approached the court for exhumation and postmortem to ascertain the real circumstances in which the girl was killed. It was learned that the police summoned the deceased’s parents, mother and uncle for investigation. — Hamid Asghar in Gujjar Khan contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2025