ISLAMABAD, Aug 20 A dual national of Britain and Pakistan has alleged that the Gujar Khan police tried to cover up her father's murder by initially trying to record the cause of death as suicide even though he had extensive head injuries.

Wahida Ashiq alleged that the police were now holding his late father's nephews claiming they had confessed to the killing by using rat poison. However, she claimed that the toxicology report had turned negative.

“The victim's family has been in Pakistan since June 17, lobbying for a proper investigation but are facing police corruption and have had death threats against themselves,” she added.

She claimed that the men the family suspected of the murder were the victim's brother and his associate who was notorious for land grabbing in the area. The accused are using their money and political contacts to avoid arrest, she added.

Ms Ashiq claimed that the accused had openly threatened her father with dire consequences (death threats) and it was widely known that they had also approached him on numerous occasions asking him to sell his land to them as they had got a government grant to build a road. The victim sold a plot in Kangar as he was its legal owner but the associate claimed that it belonged to him, she added.

Mohammad Ashiq, a British citizen, came to Pakistan on April 18 to look after his ailing mother, complete the construction of a mosque and attend the final court hearing in six civil cases, all concerning land disputes against his brother.

He was murdered at his home in the early hours of June 16 while sleeping feet away from his mother and a nephew in Mandal near Gujar Khan, Ms Ashiq added.

She said one of the accused (his brother) was detained briefly at Gujar Khan police station after the family approached the deputy inspector general of police. “However, the police released the accused without questioning him about the death threats he had issued to my father and the land he was trying to acquire by force. Even the police did not question the associate of the accused.”

She said the police were claiming that her father was poisoned by his two nephews but the toxicology report has turned negative. “When we visited his nephews in the prison they claimed that they were kept at a sub-inspector's house initially and were moved to the police station and forced by an inspector to sign the bogus confessions.”

The family suspected that the sub-inspector and the inspector had taken bribe from the accused and were not investigating them.

She said the police had also failed to secure the crime scene, send vital items for forensic examination, interview the victim's mother and speak to any of the villagers and the family.