A case has been registered against two men over the death of a dual British-Belgian woman of Pakistani origin in Lahore's DHA neighbourhood, it emerged on Tuesday.

Identified as Mahira, 25, she was found shot dead at her rented house in Defence on Monday.

The deceased woman had arrived from the UK, where her family is settled, some two months back and shared the upper portion of the rented house with a friend, who was living in her adjoining room.

Quoting the initial postmortem report, the investigation officer of the case, Defence Circle Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sidra Khan, said Mahira had received two bullets — one to her neck and another to her arm. Bruises were also found on her right hand and left foot.

Police have taken her housemate into custody as part of the probe.

Late on Monday, Defence-B police registered a First Information Report (FIR) against two purported friends of Mahira on murder charges on the complaint of the deceased woman's uncle.

In his application, Mohammad Nazeer, who is a resident of Lahore, stated that Mahira while visiting him a few days ago at his place had informed him that her friends Zahir Jadoon and Saad Ameer Butt were threatening her with "dire consequences".

After she told him that she feared for her life from the two men, Nazeer said he assured her and asked her to let him know if something happened.

According to the complainant, the reason for the dispute was that suspect Saad had been forcing Mahira to marry him, while Zahir too desired to marry her. However, Mahira had outright refused to marry either of them, according to the FIR.

Nazeer said he had intended to talk to the two men in order to make them understand, however, he received a call from Mahira's father (his brother-in-law) from London on Monday afternoon who informed him that somebody had shot Mahira.

The complainant said he rushed to Mahira's residence in DHA Phase V and found her lying in a pool of blood. She had died and was bleeding from the neck, the FIR said.

Nazeer said he suspected that Zahir and Saad along with their two unknown accomplices had murdered Mahira at around 4-5am on Monday after careful planning. On his complaint, a case was registered against the suspects under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Cantt Operations Superintendent of Police Sayyed Ali earlier told Dawn that an unidentified caller had alerted police about the murder and after that forensic experts visited and cordoned off the scene.

He said the woman was lying in a pool of blood in her room with her mobile phone near her body.

“We have seized the mobile phone for forensic analysis,” the SP said, adding that police teams were also trying to access the nearby CCTV cameras' footage to check the movement of any suspect.

SP Sayyed said they had also contacted the parents and other family members of the deceased abroad to get details from them.

“We are also after two suspects and will share further details at a later stage,” the police said, adding that Mahira’s friend who was living with her at the same house shared no useful detail.

Due to travel restrictions because of Covid-19, the deceased's family was unable to travel to Pakistan immediately.

ASP Khan told Dawn the FIR was lodged after the deceased woman's family granted power of attorney to her uncle in Lahore to file the complaint.

She said police hoped to arrest the suspected culprits soon.