27 December 2022
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE: In another honour killing in Jhang, police and rescue officials have retrieved the body of a 13-year-old girl dumped in an abandoned water well.
The girl was strangled by her father and brother after she was forcibly taken away from her aunt’s house where she was hiding in fear for her life. According to the first information report registered with Sadar police station in Jhang, the thirteen-year-old Sania, a resident of Kot Khaira in Jhang area, was strangled to death by her father and brother, and her body was dumped in Korraywali Kachi canal near Jhang.
Rescue divers and police officials worked for three days in vain to recover the body of a girl from the canal. The girl’s father Babar Ali Sial had first told police he had murdered his minor daughter for honour, dumping the body into the canal. He later retracted his earlier claim of dumping the body into the canal and revealed the place where the body was hidden after the murder.
According to police, the minor girl’s body was recovered from a water well near Kot Khaira. Later, the accused used a tractor to fill the well with earth. Police excavated the well, retrieved the body and shifted it to the Jhang DHQ Hospital for an autopsy.
“The girl’s father said he had murdered his daughter on suspicion of having illicit relations and dumped the dead body to hide his crime,” a senior police official told reporters at a press conference. She was murdered on December 27 while his maternal uncle lodged a report with police two days later, suspecting that her niece was murdered by her father who had taken her away from her aunt’s house.
Police have charged five family members with the murder of the girl. The girl’s father, brother, and cousin have been arrested while two other family members are still at large. The accused have been charged with offences under Section 302 (murder), Section 311 (Ta’zir after waiver or compounding of the right of Qisas in Qatl-i-Amd), Section 147 (rioting) and Section 149 (common intention and common object) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
A Jhang police spokesperson told Voicepk.net that police have inserted Section 311 of PPC in view of the honour killing, adding that blood relatives of the victim would not be able to forgive or reach a compromise with the accused in the case. According to statistics from Punjab police, three cases of honour killing were reported in Jhang district in 2021. Last year, 197 cases of honour killings were reported across Punjab province.