According to police sources, a 24-year-old lady was slain by her husband on Monday in the Landhi neighborhood of Karachi.
According to Quaidabad police, the victim, Fatima, was found to have had her “tortured” body found in her home in the Sherpao Colony, close to Aqsa Masjid.
For legal reasons, the body was moved to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. At the time of writing, the police had not received any first information reports (FIRs) pertaining to the case.
Ghulam Husain Pirzada, the House Officer (SHO) of the Quaidabad Police Station, informed Dawn.com that Fatima died from strangulation, citing medical reports.
SHO Pirzada stated, “The police had detained Fatima’s husband upon the complaint of her sister,” and mentioned the suspect’s assertion that his wife had committed suicide.
According to SHO Pirzada, the couple got married in 2017 and gave birth to two kids. They got into a fight three months ago, and the culprit verbally divorced the victim out of rage.
A local church leader threatened to end the couple’s divorce process in three months if they failed to make amends. The officer stated that the pair had not healed their relationship at the end of the three-month reconciliation period on Sunday.
After a preliminary investigation, it was discovered that the victim had gotten into a furious quarrel with her husband over her demands for her dowry and other valuables. According to the authorities, the situation got worse and the man eventually killed his wife.
Crime scene investigators reported that a rope was fastened to a door, which the suspect claims the woman used to end her own life, according to SHO Pirzada. The official did note that there was some circumstantial evidence that the incident was not a suicide.
The official said that when the victim’s sister approached the police, a formal complaint would be made under the murder statute and that the police were still looking into the matter.
A research conducted in December 2023 by the Asian Development Bank revealed that domestic violence in Pakistan was becoming a silent pandemic that posed a significant threat to both the state and society.
A survey conducted in Punjab and Sindh was cited in the paper “Gendered Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Central and West Asia,” which indicated a rise in physical violence threats (40%) and physical assaults by spouses (46%).
Development partners in Pakistan also emphasized in the report that the loss of livelihoods and limitations led to a large increase in the rate of violence against women and girls, underscoring the need for a shift in the country’s narrative.
