LAHORE, July 28: A schoolteacher allegedly killed his two daughters in his house in Bagh Gul Begum in Lytton Road police limits. The teacher and his wife made divergent statements about the incident.
Whereas his wife claimed that he was disturbed over the fact that he had no male issue, the teacher blamed her "character" for the incident.
Chanda told the police that she was married to 36-year-oldMukhtar Husain in 1996. She gave birth to two daughters, Sobia, who was four years old at the time of her death, and Hira, who was two. "He would often make it an issue that I was unable to give him a son, and would subject me to severe torture."
Chanda said she and her daughters were asleep in the courtyard of the house last night, when she woke up on hearing screams of one of the minors. "What I saw was horrible," she said, adding that Sobia was lying dead with her throat slit open while her husband was busy slaughtering the other daughter.
She raised an alarm and the neighbours rushed to the scene and caught the accused. The police were called in and the accused was handed over to them. Meanwhile, Mukhtar continued to make contradictory statements, mainly calling his wife a woman of loose morals. He also claimed that he was trapped in debt and feared that it would make life miserable for his daughters.
He told reporters that he had warned his wife several times to mend her ways. He alleged that she had relations with other men. "I feared that my daughters would also follow their mother and earn me a bad name on growing up." He, however, refused to buy the claim made by his wife that he wanted a male issue. "It has never been a problem for me."
The accused failed to give a satisfactory answer when he was asked why did he not kill his wife. "I don't know," he replied. His brother, Ashraf Shah, said he was disturbed over financial constraints and had also attempted to commit suicide some two years ago.
The bodies were sent to the city mortuary for an autopsy. Meanwhile, a man shot dead his son-in-law over a trivial issue in Mughalpura. Ali Raza told police that his brother, Salar Shah (32), was killed by his father-in-law, Tanvir Shah. He said Salar and Tanvir exchanged harsh words over a petty issue while travelling in a rickshaw. Tanvir opened fire and escaped.
Salar sustained critical injuries and died on way to hospital. The body was removed to the city mortuary for an autopsy.
ARRESTED: Police claimed on Wednesday that they had arrested 10 members of two gangs of robbers. Mughalpura police said they had apprehended six alleged motorcycle lifters.
Claiming to have seized eight stolen motorcycles, the police alleged that the arrested men had confessed to 49 crimes against property. The accused have been identified as Asim, Arshad, Jabbar, Rustam, Rehmat Ali and Shahbaz. Four pistols and over a dozen bullets were also seized.
Shahdara police arrested four members of another gang of robbers. Identified as Waheed, Nadeem, Iqbal and Mushtaq, the accused were arrested in a raid conducted on a tip-off. Six pistols and 40 bullets were recovered from their possession.
