RAWALPINDI, April 15: A bridegroom was killed on his wedding night when a bullet fired by a friend of his friend hit his head at the marriage celebration at his house in Tench Bhata late Thursday, the family said. Javaid Iqbal, the grieving father of 25-year-old Jahanzaib Javaid, believes that Ajmal Khan, the shooter, came to the wedding with murder on his mind.

“My son was murdered. We caught the cruel man, seized his pistol and handed him over to the local police,” he told Dawn.

According to him, Ajmal Khan came with one of his son’s friends, pulled out his pistol as the wedding ceremony was in progress, targeted his son and fired.

Shocked guests seized and disarmed Khan and rushed the bleeding bridegroom to District Headquarters Hospital where doctors declared Jahanzaib dead. Just days before his marriage, Jahanzaib was in detention of the same police station to which his murder was reported.

Police and his family said he was detained for a couple of days for questioning in connection with a private complaint lodged against the family. But police found him innocent of any wrong doing and had set him free three days before his wedding.

“Had I known what tragic fate awaited my son on Thursday, I would have delayed his marriage,” said father Javaid Iqbal sobbing.

Iqbal, a taxi who lived in a rented house with his two sons, said he was hard up these days and had barrowed money to hold his son’s marriage.