Pakistan arrests two for Dubai resident’s ‘honour killing’

Samia Shahid was killed after her family allegedly lured her back to Pakistan from Dubai, where she lived with her husband, on the pretext of her father’s illness.

ISLAMABAD // Pakistani police have arrested the father and ex-husband of a British woman of Pakistani origin who was killed last month in what authorities suspect was an “honour killing”, a top investigator said on Monday.

Samia Shahid’s family buried her, claiming she had died of natural causes. Police reopened the case after her Dubai-based husband raised the alarm, and later concluded the 28-year-old was strangled to death.

Abu Bakar Khuda Bux, the investigator heading the team, said the victim’s father, Mohammad Shahid, and her former husband, Mohammad Shakeel, were prime suspects in the case.

The two were formally arrested on Sunday, although the police have been questioning them for several days, Mr Bux said.

“All the evidence we have is leading to their involvement in the murder,” he said. “We are collecting more evidence before we send the case to court.”

After her death, Shahid’s second husband, Mukhtar Kazim, accused the family of luring her back to Pakistan from Dubai, where the couple lived, on the pretext of her father’s illness.

According to two police officers involved in the investigation, the ex-husband has confessed to the killing and has described to his interrogators how he used his ex-wife’s scarf to strangle her.

Mr Bux declined to comment on the purported confessions, saying the investigation was not yet finished.

After she married the first time, Shahid lived in Pakistan for a brief period before moving back to England where she got a divorce in 2014. Her family had lived Bradford since the 1950s.

Pakistan reports nearly 1,000 so-called “honor killings” every year.

* Associated Press