Karachi police on Saturday said they are investigating the murder of a young man and woman whose bodies were found a few days ago from a road leading to Hub Dam, adding they suspected the motive to be 'so-called honour'.

Earlier this week, Surjani Town police had found the bodies of the duo, whose throats were slit. The deceased, originally from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were later identified as residents of Orangi Town area Metroville, and who had reportedly been "missing" from their respective homes.

Their identities were not ascertained until Friday when the murdered man was identified as Naseeb Zar Khan.

“The father of the victim came to the police station on Friday after identifying the man’s body at the morgue,” said Inspector Idrees Bangash, the SHO of Surjani Town police station.

“He [father of the victim] said that his son had left home in July 2018 after some dispute within the family and since then they were not in contact with him. They only knew that he was in Lahore and were not sure what happened to him which led to the tragic end of his life.”

SHO Bangash said that the police's suspicions about the murders being "honor killings" arose on Saturday when the deceased woman was identified as Bibi — a resident of the same area as the deceased man. She was reported missing just a month after the man had left his home.

The SHO revealed that the police, through their “own intelligence sources”, managed to gather details from their neighbourhood.

The officer said that they have “strong" reasons to believe that the slain duo had left their homes with each other and that investigations are under way to connect the dots and establish whether a jirga (tribal counsel) was involved and if the families were also behind the crime.

“The family of the woman has not contacted us yet and we have heard that they have also left their home,” said SHO Bangash.

The police have registered an FIR against unknown suspects for the double murder, but the SHO says that the names of the suspects would be incorporated into the FIR once “things get clearer.”

'No evidence of jirga'

Late on Saturday night, Karachi West SSP Shoukat Ali Khatian told Dawn that the police have no evidence so far that the couple was killed on the orders of a jirga with the consent of the families.

The senior officer said that the investigation has been launched to ascertain the identity and motive of the killers of the young couple.

He said that the man’s father had approached the police for receiving the body of his son, which indicated the possibility that the father may not be involved in the incident.

However, he added that the girl’s parent’s home in Metroville was locked and the police were trying to ascertain their whereabouts.

“All I can say at this stage, is that the police have no evidence which establishes that the couple was killed over orders of a jirga,” said the SSP, adding that he did not want to give any statement which may benefit the suspects.