PESHAWAR, Aug 25: An Afghan woman whose husband allegedly killed eight of her family members a few days ago was shifted to an undisclosed location after she went to police seeking protection from the alleged killer.

It is learnt that the police were clueless where to take the woman for her safety, as she could not be sent to the Women Crisis Centre (WCC) due to lack of proper security measures there.

Some legal brains of the police suggested that she should be booked under some nominal sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure so that she could be kept in prison.

The woman, Basmina, was initially produced before the court of a judicial magistrate with the request that she should be referred to some safe place. However, the magistrate observed that it was not in his jurisdiction following which the local police took her to the Peshawar district and sessions judge with the request to send her to the prison.

Sources said that the district judge, Ziauddin Khattak, asked how the woman could be sent to the prison when she was not charged in any case. Later, the district public prosecutor, Saleem Khan, told the police that unless she was charged in any case she could not be kept in the prison. Furthermore, he stated that providing protection to the woman was the responsibility of the district coordination officer (DCO) and concerned police.

An official said that the woman was again produced before the DCO who observed that as there were no proper security arrangements at the WCC she could not be sent there.

The concerned DSP, Saleem Dad, told Dawn that he was not sure where the woman had been kept now. However, he added that due to security reasons they would keep her abode secret.

According to details, after the woman's disappearance on Aug 16, her husband, Abdul Ghaffar, allegedly killed her parents, three brothers and three sisters here at Garhi Khan Baba village in jurisdiction of Khazana police station.

According to police, Mr Ghaffar went to UK soon after his marriage six years ago, leaving behind his wife. Family members claimed that initially Mr Ghaffar made commitment that he would take Basmina to UK, but later on he stopped communicating with his in-laws and wife. Recently, he returned and visited his in-laws demanding that his wife should be handed over to him.