PESHAWAR, July 5: Police in the Upper Dir district have not been able to make a single arrest in the double murder of a known social activist and her daughter. Some unidentified men had fired on Zubeida Begum and Shomaila at about 1.00am on July 1 while the two were sleep in their house in Darora union council.
Ms Zubeida died on the spot and her 19-year-old daughter who received serious injuries was take to Peshawar where she expired on Monday at the Lady Reading Hospital.
Police officials in Dir initially claimed that they had been pursuing two lines of inquiry. First, they said, as the owner of various properties, Zubeida Begum might have run into some dispute and second, as an outspoken woman in the conservative district, she might have annoyed some elements there.
An official of the concerned police station, Gundigar, told Dawn on Tuesday that till now they had not been able to arrest any person in this case. “We are facing a handicap in this case as relatives of the deceased have not named any person with whom she had an enmity,” the official said.
He stated that the real motive for her murder was shrouded in mystery as the relatives of Ms Zubeida, who was a widow, insisted that she had no enmity with anybody.
The deceased was working as manager of the Aurat Foundation Resource Centre there. Among the development activists of Dir, Ms Zubeda was considered a very active member who rose to prominence during various crisis-like situations, especially when in the local government elections political parties had agreed not to allow women to contest elections and cast votes.
Ms Zubeida had herself come forward and contested the local government elections and was elected as councillor from union council Darora. “Prior to her death, she had made it clear that she would contest the seat of district councillor and would also think about contesting the elections of district nazim,” informed one of her colleagues. Besides Shomaila, she had two other daughters.
Some NGO workers in Upper Dir said that because Ms Zubeda was an outspoken lady she was selected as a member of the district public safety commission.
She had recently started a campaign for women’s representation in the forthcoming local government elections.
Her colleagues said that the deceased commanded great respect in the community as she had extended help to various needy persons on different occasions.
They said that she had not been threatened as far as her NGO activities were concerned. But they added that her possession of properties may have been a strong motive for her murder.