LAHORE, July 11: A 24-year-old man was shot dead allegedly by his father-in-law and his five accomplices over a marriage dispute in Badami Bagh on Wednesday. An hour after Ghulam Rasool’s murder, his 20-year-old wife Faiza was found dead at her house with a bullet injury on her chest.

According to an investigation officer, circumstantial evidences suggested that Faiza was murdered, but her in-laws said she committed suicide.

However, the investigation officer said an autopsy report would ascertain the cause of Faiza’s death.

Police registered a cross murder case and arrested two men from each side.

Badami Bagh Station House Officer Sajjad Ahmed said Rasool of Laurex Colony, Fazal Elahi Park, had an affair with Faiza, daughter of Mehmood alias Billa, of the same area. He sent a marriage proposal for Faiza, but Mehmood rejected it. Later, Rasool and Faiza decided to tie the knot in court. They eloped in December 2006, got married in a court and started their new life in a rented house in

Gujrat.

A few months later Rasool returned to Lahore to live with his family here. This development provoked Mehmood because his relatives were humiliating him over Faiza’s elopement and then her return to the neighbourhood, Ahmed said.

Finally, Mehmood and his alleged accomplices including Shahbaz, Akbar and Hummayun stopped Rasool near his house and shot him dead. Rasool’s family rushed to the street after hearing gunshots outside the house and found Rasool dead at his doorsteps.

An hour after Rasool’s murder, his family reported to the police that Faiza had committed suicide by shooting herself. Police took Rasool and Faiza’s bodies in custody and sent them for autopsies.

According to another police investigator, initial interrogation revealed that Faiza had informed her mother by her cell phone that her in-laws snubbed her and locked her in a room after her husband’s murder. “We have traced the cell phone number and the call,” the investigator added.

Later, the police arrested two men in connection with Rasool’s murder and took two of Rasool’s brothers in custody in connection with Faiza’s death.

STUDENT KILLED: A student of Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) was stabbed to death allegedly by his servant for reasons unknown in North Cantonment on Wednesday.