THATTA: A newlywed couple was found shot dead in their car near Bukhari Pir shrine on High School Road here on Wednesday morning.

The deceased were identified as Allahdino Palijo and Gul Zameeran Missan, who had contracted a free-will marriage against the consent of the woman’s parents a couple of months back.

Their relatives were quoted as saying that the families of Palijo and Missan had been at odds over the marriage but elders from both sides had reconciled them to the extent that even Missan’s brother, Raja Missan, sometime stayed at the couple’s house in Malir, Karachi.

A few days ago, Missan’s parents invited the couple to their house and treated them normally. Before the couple was about to leave for Malir, someone advised them to visit the shrine for blessing. The couple went to the shrine and a few hours later, some area residents informed Missan’s family about the couple’s bullet-riddled bodies lying in a car near the shrine.

Raja Missan was conspicuously missing since morning. The area police suspected that he might be involved in what appears to be an honour killing. A hunt was on for the suspect, they said.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2020