PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has rejected the bail petition of a man accused of killing his daughter and a man for “honour” in Lower Dir district over three months ago.

Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar of a single-member bench declared that tentatively, the evidence on record showed that prima facie, the suspect was involved in the offence.

The bench observed that it was not inclined to order the release of the suspect on bail as the punishment for that offence fell in the restrictive clause of Section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

It added that the murder of a man and a woman at the same time and place suggested that their lives were taken in the name of honour.

The FIR of honour killings was registered by the Timergara police station in Lower Dir district on Aug 23, 2022, under the Pakistan Penal Code’s sections 302 (intentional murder) and 311 (mischief on earth).

The case was registered by the police station’s SHO on the information provided by Kausar Begum, the wife of the deceased man.

The woman had informed the police that her husband was invited by one of his relatives, Noor Mohammad, who was also a co-accused in the case, to his house.

She added that when she and her husband reached that house, they found Noor Mohammad as well as his children and father-in-law Akhtar Khan (petitioner) to be present there.

According to the woman, her husband sat with Noor Mohammad, while she was present there with the deceased woman, the co-accused’s wife and the petitioner’s daughter.

She alleged that suddenly, Noor Mohammad began spraying the male accused with bullets, whereas Mr Akhtar fired at his daughter killing both on the spot.

The woman claimed that the two were killed by the accused for suspecting them of having extramarital relations.

The bench observed that the petitioner was directly named in the report with the specific role of effective firing at his daughter that killed her instantly.

It added that prima facie, the version of the prosecution was supported by the report of postmortem performed on the woman deceased.

The petitioner’s counsel contended that his client was falsely implicated in the case and that the version of the prosecution was based on hearsay.

Earlier, the bail petition of the suspect was rejected by Lower Dir additional district and sessions judge Nusrat Naz, who observed that the matter was a case of gender-based offence, so Section 311 of the Pakistan Penal Code had been inserted into the case against the petitioner.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2022