RAWALPINDI: A woman has been arrested in connection with the murder of her husband, a police constable, on Sunday night.

She gave sleeping pills to her husband and then her friend along with his accomplice came to the couple’s house and shot him dead, said the investigating officer of the case.

“The woman has confessed to the killing but she has no regret over it. Her husband was respected by the community in his town and considered as an efficient official in the police department,” said Malik Naeem, who is leading the investigation into the murder case.

Athar Hussain, who was posted to the Saddar police station in Wah Cantonment, was found dead on his bed after his neighbours came to his house at Chauntra.

The couple had three children aged six, four and two years.

Initially, the constable’s wife Sumaira told the police that she was asked by her husband to go and stay a night at the

house of one of her relatives when two men and a woman came to his house and killed him.

“The woman’s statement was suspicious, so police kept her under observation until her husband was buried and then investigated her which led to her confession,” the investigating officer said.

He added that the woman had developed illicit relations with Zahid Hussain, a relative of her husband.

She along with Zahid and his friend Iftikhar shot the constable after he fell unconscious due to the sleeping pills given to him by his wife.

After the incident came to light, the police tried to interview the elder son of the deceased but he did not know anything about his father’s murder but only said he along with his younger sister and brother was taken to a relative’s house by their mother on Sunday night.

“She has no regret over the murder of her husband but asked her relatives and the police to take care of her children,” the investigating officer said.

This was the second incident murder of a man by his wife in the limits of the Chontra police during the last two months.

Sumaira, aged about 30, was shifted to the woman police station after being arrested and later remanded in police custody for three days.

Efforts by the police are underway to arrest the two other suspects. The woman will be produced before a local court on Saturday after completion of her physical remand.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2019