KARACHI: Police on Saturday registered a case about the murder of a young couple, who were allegedly killed in the name of honour, officials said.

They said that earlier in the week Surjani Town police found the bodies of a young man and a woman, whose throats had been slit.

The bodies found by the road leading to the Hub dam remained unidentified until Friday when the slain man was identified as Naseeb Zar Khan, who was a resident of Metroville in SITE. “The father of the victim came to the police station on Friday after identifying his body at the morgue,” said Inspector Idrees Bangash, the station house officer of the Surjani Town police station.

“He said his son left home in July 2018 after some dispute and since then the family were not in contact with him. They only knew that he was in Lahore and were not sure what happened to him that led to his death,” said the officer.

The mystery deepened on Satur­day evening, when the deceased woman was identified as Bibi, who was a resident of the same area and who went missing a month after Khan left his home, he said.

Police through their “intelligence sources” managed to gather information from the couple’s neighbourhood, which suggested some “suspicious activity” after the two had reportedly gone missing last year.

“We have strong clues that indicate the two knew each other and left their homes with each other’s consent... Investigations are under way to connect the dots and establish the link between their death and a jirga if one was organised by their families,” said Inspector Bangash.

“The family of the woman have not contacted us yet and we have heard they too have left their home. Families of both the deceased persons hail from Kala Dhaka in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “Initially we have registered an FIR against unknown suspects for [double] murder.” The names of the suspects would be incorporated into the FIR after further investigations, he added.

When contacted, Karachi West SSP Shoukat Ali Khatian told Dawn that an investigation had been launched to ascertain the identity of the killers.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2019