The post-mortem report of a British-Pakistani woman found dead in Pakistan last week in an alleged ‘honour killing’ had a bruise on her neck which doctors say suggests she was strangled to death.
Police are investigating the death of 28-year-old Samia Shahid after her husband, Mukhtar Kazam, claimed she had been murdered in a so-called ‘honour’ killing in Pindori in Punjab’s Jehlum district while visiting them.
The report found that “there is a horizontal mark on the right-hand side of the neck of reddish discolouration,” according to The Telegraph. Along bruise around the neck a few millimetres in width can be seen in the photographs included in the report.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior doctor at a government hospital in Jhelum said, “The cause of death looks like strangulation of the neck with a narrow rope-like object.” The report, however, is preliminary, and the official cause of death will not be established until next week. The police had initially told the media that the post-mortem report showed no external injuries.
The couple, both British-Pakistani dual citizens, had been married for two years and was living in Dubai. According to the police, it was Shahid’s second marriage. Kazam, her second husband, alleges that the family was unhappy with his wife’s divorce and remarriage to him, and had tricked her into returning to Pakistan by falsely claiming that her father was unwell, in order to kill her.
Her family denies the claim and her father insists she died of natural causes. Further, police are also searching for her Shahid’s passport which is of considerable importance to the investigation. Shahid’s father claims that she arrived from Britain, while her husband claims that she arrived from Dubai, police said.
Police have also searched the home of Shahid’s friend, Ambreen, with whom she was alleged to have stayed when she arrived in Pakistan. Ambreen has, however, denied the claim.
COURTESY THE TELEGRAPH