ISLAMABAD: An additional district and sessions judge of Rawalpindi on Saturday convicted a man for killing her former wife, a US national of Pakistani origin, and sentenced him to death and 10 years imprisonment.

Rizwan Habib Bangash, former husband of Wajiha Farooq Swati, had confessed last December to have killed her and buried her in a pit at his servant’s house in Lakki Marwat.

Swati, a 47-year-old woman, went missing after arriving in Rawalpindi on Oct 16 last year and her body was later exhumed by police on Dec 25.

A missing person’s complaint was filed by Abdullah Mehdi Ali, a resident of Hayatabad Peshawar, who identified himself as the woman’s son.

Additional Sessions Judge Mohammad Afzal Majoka sentenced the co-accused Hurriatullah and Sultan to seven years in prison each.

The court acquitted three accused — Yousuf, Zahida and Rashid — for want of evidence.

According to the investigation, Swati was demanding her millions of rupees worth of property back, which she had transferred in the name of Bangash before their divorce.

The court earlier this year indicted the six accused in the murder case. All the accused pleaded not guilty. The arrested woman, Zahida, denied to have washed out the crime scene after the incident.

The case was registered by the Morgah police station on Oct 17, 2021. The accused fraudulently called the deceased from America to settle the property dispute.

However, on her arrival in the garrison city on Oct 16, she was murdered by Bangash who shifted her body from Rawalpindi to Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in his car and buried it in a pit.

After the murder, the accused kept searching for the victim along with the police.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2022