KARACHI, July 4: A newly-married woman was strangled to death allegedly by her husband and father-in-law in Orangi Town on Monday, police said.

The officials added that the accused family attempted to cover up the alleged crime by pretending that the woman had committed suicide but a post-mortem examination of the body showed that 22-year-old Nasreen Bibi had actually been strangled to death.

“The victim got married with Abdul Wahid in the second week of May,” said Orangi Town SHO Sub-Inspector Jafar Abbas.

“Some area people told us that a woman in MPR Colony had committed suicide. We first visited her room where the family said she had committed suicide but there was nothing that could corroborate their claim, raising suspicions that it was a cover-up.”

He said the in-laws of the deceased woman were unwilling for the post-mortem examination but it was made possible when the police insisted on medico-legal formalities.

“The findings of the initial examination showed that the woman did not commit suicide rather she was strangled to death with a piece of rope,” the SHO said.

Meanwhile, he said, a brother of the victim arrived from Quetta and shared with the police a few facts that would help probe the murder.

He said it was surprising that during the entire episode the victim’s husband and father-in-law were missing. They did not appear before the police despite repeated requests, he added.

Following the medico-legal examination, the police registered an FIR (204/2011) under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against the victim’s husband, Abdul Wahid, and father-in-law, Abdul Khaliq, on a complaint of her brother, Zaheer Ahmed.

The official said that while the exact motive behind the murder was not yet clear, the complainant alleged that his brother-in-law was a drug addict and the former came to know about the fact only after his sister’s marriage.