Police ignored UK national’s pleas for protection

Published May 7, 2021
The deceased girl had also alleged that the other suspect, Saad Butt, had tried to sexually assault her after she refused to accept his marriage proposal.— AP/File
The deceased girl had also alleged that the other suspect, Saad Butt, had tried to sexually assault her after she refused to accept his marriage proposal.— AP/File

LAHORE: The UK national girl who was killed at her Defence residence on May 3 had sought protection from police, submitting written complaints after receiving death threats from one of the main suspects and rape threats from another.

During an investigation, it appeared that victim Mahira had submitted an application with the Defence B police, seeking protection from Zahir Jadoon, saying he wanted to kill her. Police, however, showed negligence towards her repeated and written requests against death threats she had been receiving from the suspect.

The deceased girl had also alleged that the other suspect, Saad Butt, had tried to sexually assault her after she refused to accept his marriage proposal. Both the suspects were her friends.

The murder case took a surprise turn after it transpired that she had uploaded some objectionable photos of one of her two friends on social media following her dispute with him.

Slain girl had submitted complaints against death threats

It was also said that before the strained relations, Mahira had friendship with Jadoon and Butt and both wanted to marry her.

Quoting initial inquiries, a police official said Jadoon alleged that he was subjected to torture by some unidentified persons at the behest of Mahira. He said she later uploaded some of Jadoon’s objectionable photos on the social media, which irked him.

The official said Mahira might have been murdered by one of the two suspects, following her strained relations with them.

The police teams were conducting raids for the arrest of the both suspects, he said.

According to the postmortem report, the victim had received two bullets, which killed her on the spot.

Police have already registered a murder case on the complaint of her uncle Muhammad Nazeer.

Mahira was living in a rented house in Defence Housing Authority where her female friend was also staying in a separate room.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2021

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