Daily Times

GUJRAT: In an apparent case of honour killing, Sana Cheema, an Italian-Pakistani woman, was allegedly killed by her father, brother, and uncle for honour, media report said Tuesday.

Police said that the 26-year-old woman’s family had termed her death an ‘accident’ and buried the body in West Mangowal area of District Gujrat.

However, district police officer (DPO) Gujrat started an investigation after social media reports suggested that the girl has been murdered.

According to the police, the girl’s father, identified as Ghulam Mustafa, wanted to marry her off to his relatives but Sana wanted to get married in Italy. The father then took on board his son, Adnan Mustafa, and brother, Mazhar Iqbal, and hatched a plan to kill her.

The police have registered a case against three suspects, who were yet to be arrested.

In 2016, the high-profile ‘honour killing’ of British national Samia Shahid in Pakistan had rocked the nation.

The 28-year-old girl from Bradford had been visiting her family in Jhelum when she was murdered in July 2016. Her second husband, Mukhtar Syed Kazam had raised concerns that his wife had been murdered because her family disapproved of their marriage.

Samia’s relatives had initially claimed she had suffered a heart attack which led to her death. Eventually, Samia’s first husband Chaudhry Shakeel confessed to strangulating her to death. agencies

Published in Daily Times, April 25^th 2018.