The uncle of a British woman who died in a suspected so-called “honour killing” has been arrested under forgery charges for getting her death certificate from a local union council.
The Jhelum Civil Lines police have arrested Samia Shahid’S maternal uncle.
The certificate managed by Haq Nawaz through Ladhar union council in Dina tehsil showed her ex-husband Chaudhary Shakil as her present husband and declared that she had died from natural causes.
Police said Nawaz had done so to save Shakil from charges of rape that had already been proved in the forensic report of Samia’s dead body and the DNA test of Shakil.
The section 376 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) under the rape charges has also been added to the case registered against Shakil.
Police said the death certificate was produced before the investigating team on Aug 8 after the forensic report had proved that Samia died of unnatural causes through asphyxiation. Suspect Shakil later confessed to strangulating her after intoxication.
Read more: Samia Shahid was raped before being strangled to death, police say
Samia Shahid, 28, from Bradford, died in July in northern Punjab.
In a second development, the policeman who initially headed the murder investigation has also been arrested.
Aqeel Abbas is being held for allegedly trying to conceal evidence relating to Ms Shahid’s death.
Shahid had been visiting family in the village of Pandori when she died, and her relatives initially claimed she had suffered a heart attack.
Her second husband, Syed Mukhtar Kazim, believes she was the victim of a so-called honour killing as her family did not approve of their marriage.
A post-mortem examination confirmed she died as a result of being strangled.
On Friday, police told the BBC they intended to proceed with a prosecution against both Ms Shahid’s father and first husband for her murder.
He added he was seeking to have her mother and sister returned to Pakistan to be questioned in relation to the investigation.
Her former husband, Chaudhry Muhammad Shakeel, is accused of murder and is reported to have confessed to strangling her with her scarf, according to local police.
Chaudhry Muhammad Shahid, her father, is being held as an accessory to her murder.
Read more: Ex-husband, father charged with Samia Shahid’s murder