MANSEHRA: Police on Sunday arrested two of the four suspects, who had killed a woman and her 16-month-old daughter ‘for honour’ in Jabar area here on Friday.

“The cold-blooded murder of a minor girl and her mother sparked outrage throughout the country. We have arrested two main suspects, and raids are underway to apprehend the others,” district police officer Shafiullah Khan Gandapur told a presser here.

He said the woman, 20, had married a man nearly four years ago. The couple had been in the hiding since then. “The man still hiding in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but his wife recently surfaced and started living with her in-laws,” Mr Gandapur said.

He added as the woman came out of hiding, her first cousin, Waseem Shah, Alias Wasi Shah, began tracking her and eventually located her residence in Jaba. “Waseem, accompanied by three other accused, including Razzaq Shah, Mehtab Shah, and Ahsan Ali Shah, barged into the house. They first shot dead the woman and then murdered her infant daughter before fleeing the scene,” Mr Gandapur said.

He stated the police registered an FIR on the complaint of the mother-in-law of the slain woman under sections 302, 452, 506, and 34 of Pakistan Penal Code, and launched raids to arrest the assailants.

“I have constituted a team, which conducted raids and arrested Waseem and Razzaq,” Mr Gandapur said.

He said the provincial police chief and DIG Hazara were closely monitoring the case and coordinating efforts for arrests of all the accused.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2025