GUJAR KHAN: Two suspects, who allegedly enticed a college girl to elope with one of them — which led to her purported ‘honour killing’ at the hands of her uncle — have been arrested by the Jatli police in Gujar Khan.

According to the police, the victim was lured by the suspects with a false promise of marriage.

The victim’s uncle had already been apprehended for poisoning the girl to death on the night she was retrieved and brought back home through a jirga (tribal jirga).

The investigation into the murder was launched by Jatli police based on an intelligence report that the girl had eloped with someone from her house on the night of February 3 and was buried in the local graveyard the next day after her mysterious death.

The body of the girl was exhumed by the police on February 11 to conduct a postmortem examination to determine the cause of her death. According to sources, the ensuing investigation revealed that her uncle, who was also the father of her fiancé, had poisoned her to death for honour.

Saddar Division Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohammad Nabil Khokhar said the scope of the investigation was expanded after the arrest of the primary suspect who has been sent on judicial remand.

He said that two more suspects have been taken into custody for abducting the girl after luring her into a false promise of marriage.

The suspects were being interrogated and a case had also been registered against them under Section 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), SP Khokhar said.

He added that the victim was a first-year student and her mysterious death had prompted the police to lodge investigations under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Meanwhile, in a statement, Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Syed Khalid Hamdani said that no stone would be left unturned to solve the case and deliver justice.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2025