RAWALPINDI: A man murdered his wife and then killed himself in Sadiqabad on Tuesday.

Police said Yasmeen, 40, had been a domestic worker and her husband Niamat Khan, 45, was a daily-wage labourer.

They both lost their jobs shortly after a lockdown was announced to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Rawalpindi.

They had four sons and three daughters - one of their sons drives an auto-rickshaw, but has not been able to work during the lockdown either.

A preliminary police report suggested that the couple fought over their financial difficulties on Tuesday.

Khan stabbed his wife and then killed himself with the same knife.

One of their daughters, in a short statement to the police and rescue services, said her father killed her mother and then himself.

“The couple had been living under severe stress due to poverty. They quarrelled on Tuesday, and the man took a knife and stabbed his wife and then himself,” Rawal Division Superintendent of Police Mazhar Iqbal said.

He speculated that the motive behind the incident was poverty because both the deceased had lost their jobs and their income had dried up.

Separately, a police constable was killed in a road accident on Chakri Road on Monday.

Constable Sabir Hussain, posted with the Ratta Amral police, had been on his way to his village from Rawalpindi. He was hit by a vehicle on Chakri Road and died upon reaching the hospital.

His funeral prayers were offered at Police Lines on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2020