GUJAR KHAN: Sohawa police have finally tracked down the alleged killer of a woman journalist from Pakpattan, whose mutilated body was found lying in the hilly terrain of Tarraki on March 11.

On April 17, with the help of her fingerprints, the body was identified as that of Tahira Nosheen, a journalist associated with a local Urdu newspaper.

According to the police investigators, the woman’s former second husband had allegedly stabbed and shot her, throwing acid on her face to destroy her identity.

Regional Police Officer Rawalpindi Babar Sarfraz Alpa told Dawn that the Punjab police had listed it among the most urgent cases.

Subdivisional Police Officer (SDPO) Sohawa Sajid Gondal said Tawakal Hussain, the ex-husband of the journalist, was summoned to cooperate in investigations but he evaded and later was declared a proclaimed offender. Mr Gondal said the suspect was tracked down while travelling near Tarraki area of Jhelum from Lahore.

According to the SDPO, during the interrogation, the suspect confessed to killing Nosheen while driving her in a car from Rawalpindi to Lahore.

The suspect told the police that while crossing the Gujar Khan city, he turned off their mobile phones and travelled on the GT Road up to the hilly terrain where he allegedly shot her dead with a pistol and threw acid on her face.

According to the police, the fingerprints of the deceased were taken before her burial. This led to her identity from the Nadra record.

SHO Mohammad Imran of Sohawa told Dawn that during the investigations it also transpired that Nosheen had developed differences with her second husband as he was eying at her house and agricultural land in Pakpattan that she had inherited from her deceased father.

He had been asking her to let him buy a house in Lahore after selling the property. She had also filed a case in the family court to get a divorce from him.

The woman had lodged a complaint with the FIA cybercrime wing against the suspect for sharing her objectionable pictures with her acquaintances.

The suspect later convinced her that he would delete the pictures if she accompanied him to Lahore. However, on the way to Lahore, he allegedly murdered her on the night of March 9, the SHO said.

The SHO said police had also recovered the weapon used in the murder. The suspect was sent on judicial remand by a court on Monday.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2024