LAHORE: A man shot dead three people, including his daughter and her husband, before surrendering himself to police on Friday morning in Ashraf Town of Kahna area.

Police said Mohammad Ashraf, who works as a security guard at a private housing colony, confessed to killing his daughter Saba, 22, and son-in-law Karamat, 38, for marrying without his consent more than a year ago and their neighbour Mohammad Ikram, 49, for helping the couple contract the marriage. The couple had a three-month-old boy.

Talking to Dawn, Mohammad Usman, a brother of Ikram, claimed that Ashraf had a monetary dispute with his son-in-law.

“The couple lived in Abdullah Town in Kahna and often visited Saba’s parents to stay with them as her parents had already become reconciled to her decision to marry of her own choice. Ashraf had a heated argument with his son-in-law before he murdered the couple,” he said.

Police said Ashraf first shot dead the couple before killing Ikram, who lived in the same street.

Police shifted the bodies to a morgue for autopsy and registered a murder case against Ashraf and his two sons on the complaint of Usman.

A police official said Saba was Karamat’s third wife. He said police were conducting raids to arrest the suspect’s sons.

It is the third alleged incident of honour killing in Punjab in little over a week. In the first incident, a 19-year-old teacher, Maria Sadaqat, was tortured and burnt alive in a village near Murree for refusing to marry a son of the owner of the school where she taught.

In the second incident, a teenage girl, Zeenat Rafiq, was set on fire in a low-income Lahore neighbourhood by her mother and brother for marrying a man of her own choice.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2016