PHOTO: IRIN
Ten members of a family were massacred on Sunday in Charsadda district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa after they refused a marriage proposal. Gul Ahmed, accompanied by some men from the neighbouring tribal region, visited his uncle Jamal Shah’s house in Tangi Tehsil at 3am to ask for his daughter Naveeda’s hand in marriage, a police official, Hassan Khan, told The Express Tribune.
“When Shah rejected the proposal, Ahmed and his accomplices killed Shah, his wife, their four daughters and as many of their sons.”
Khan said Ahmed was engaged to Naveeda, a third-year student, but Ahmed’s father Sher Nawab had refused to go through with the wedding because of financial constraints, as he had just married off his elder son.
“Infuriated, Ahmed murdered his father, mother and two brothers on November 29 last year before fleeing to Mohmand Agency.”
While there, he warned his uncle not to back out of the wedding, said the policeman. “After killing his own family, Ahmed wanted to marry his fiancée and take her to the tribal agency.”
However, Shah refused to marry his daughter to a criminal, which resulted in Sunday’s bloodbath.
Police said they were unable to arrest Ahmed because he has again fled to Mohmand, where “such criminals live peacefully”.
The Pakistan Penal Code does not extend to the tribal areas, and the Frontier Crimes Regulation – a special set of laws applicable to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) – does not have a clause to deal with such cases.
Taking advantage of this, several criminals quite literally run for the hills of Fata after breaking the law. According to Tangi SDPO Abdul Rasheed, the police are coordinating with the Mohmand political administration to secure the custody of the alleged killer.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2015.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ