LAHORE: The police investigation has held three women of Iqbal Town guilty of murder of their young housemaid after they confessed to committing the crime.

They have been sent to jail on judicial remand as a case had already been lodged against them with the Iqbal Town Police Station.

The details of the ‘horrific murder’ of Uzma (16) as shared by Iqbal Town Division SP Ali Raza unveiled the scale of brutality and torture the domestic worker had faced at the hands of her employers. She had taken just a bite of food from the plate of the younger daughter of Mahrukh, the lady of the house. The three women, namely Mahrukh, her daughter Aima and her sister-in-law Rehana, were allegedly involved in the murder.

The ‘silly version’ of Mahrukh’s story helped the police reach the reality.

In her application, she had blamed Uzma of stealing money and running away from her home. “Mahrukh had told the police that her husband had died three years back,” SP Raza said while talking to Dawn. Her dubious statement was exposed when the police went to her home for investigation and found out that she was mother of one-year-old baby.

This made the police suspicious and they started having doubts about her whole statement regarding the theft.

Later on, further probe revealed that Mahrukh had attacked Uzma with a large ladle as punishment for taking a bite from the food. Uzma fainted due to critical injuries to her head.

“Instead of shifting Uzma to hospital, the family kept her in a room of the house though she was bleeding internally,” the SP said and added that the incident had occurred on Jan 13 while the family kept Uzma in ‘illegal custody’ in deteriorating health condition for days. She succumbed to her injuries on Jan 16.

Mahrukh had visited the Iqbal Town police, submitting an application wherein she had accused Uzma of theft.

“At the time of visit of the police officials, the family was planning to dump her body which they had concealed in the car parked in the garage of their house,” Mr Raza said.

“At the night of the same day, they threw her body into the drain near Moon Market of Allama Iqbal Town,” he added.

The next day, some locals spotted the body and alerted the police. The police contacted Uzma’s father, Muhammad Riaz, who recognised his daughter.

Uzma‘s body was later sent for post-mortem which confirmed her death was caused by head injuries.

“We immediately took Mahrukh into custody, interrogated her and she confessed to injuring Uzma with a ladle over a minor issue,” SP Raza said.

Mahrukh further told the police that her daughter and sister-in-law were also her crime partners. The police had registered a case on complaint of Riaz.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2019