Pak honour killing: Police officer arrested for delinquency in Samia Shahid case

Islamabad: A senior police officer has been arrested and jailed for negligence in the murder case of a Pakistan-origin British woman in Punjab province, an official said on Saturday.

Samia Shahid, 28, a resident of Dhok Pandori village, some 230 km from Lahore, had come to Pakistan from Dubai in mid July to see her ailing father and was found dead on July 20. Her father claimed that she died due to cardiac arrest.

The murder would have gone unnoticed but British MP Naz Shah in a letter alerted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that it could be a case of honour killing.

A high-level inquiry headed by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Abu Bakar Khuda Bakhsh concluded that she was murdered.

The DIG also asked for action against Station House Officer (SHO) Aqeel Abbas for professional negligence. A police official said that following the official procedure, a case was registered against Abbas yesterday and he was arrested and locked up in Mangal police station.

Already Samia's former husband Shakil and her father Chaudhry Shahid are in police custody for alleged murder.

Police sources said that Shakil, who is also Samia's cousin, confessed strangling her to death as she married another man of her choice.

Syed Mukhtar Kazim, second husband of Samia, had told police that his wife had been killed by her family members for marrying against the will of her parents.

Kazim and Samia, both British-Pakistani dual citizens, had been married for two years and were living in Dubai. A beauty therapist from Bradford, Samia had previously been married to her first cousin Shakil but the couple parted ways after divorce in May 2014. She then married Kazim.

The case, however, has taken another twist after a report by BBC that Samia might have been raped before murder. Police has refused to comment on the report.