July 29, 2026
Staff Report
LAHORE
A couple who had married against the wishes of the woman’s family were allegedly lured to a meeting on the pretext of reconciliation, before being brutally stabbed to death in Punjab’s Hafizabad district. The woman was eight months pregnant at the time of the attack. Ironically the incident occurred in Vanike Tarar, the hometown of the Federal Minister for Law and Justice and Human Rights, Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar.
What the FIR says
According to a First Information Report (FIR) registered on July 27 at Vanike Tarar Police Station under Sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), the victims, Afzaal Ahmad (24/25) and Samra Bibi (20/21), had contracted a love marriage nearly a year ago despite opposition from Samra’s family. The FIR does not invoke any section relating to honour-based killing, and police have not yet confirmed whether the murders will be classified as such.
The FIR, lodged by Afzaal’s father, Saif Ullah, states that after the couple married of their own choice, Samra’s family had registered a case under Section 365 of the PPC against Afzaal. That case was later dismissed after Samra gave her statement.
Called for reconciliation & attacked
According to the complainant, on July 27 at around 1pm, Samra’s brother, Shahid Abbas, called the couple to Chani Wazeerah graveyard, claiming that the family wanted to resolve the dispute through reconciliation.
“My son had informed me about the reconciliation and asked us to come and join in the reconciliation. I along with my brothers, Faiz and Khalid followed my son and daughter-in-law, who were also on a bike, and we followed them on another bike,” the complainant stated in the FIR.
The FIR alleges that when they reached the graveyard, Shahid Abbas and Yousaf — both armed with knives — along with two unidentified accomplices, were already waiting there.
“The accused Yousaf grabbed my son through his arms and the accused Shahid through his knife stroke on my son’s neck and kept attacking on his neck and face and different body parts. My injured son succumbed to the injuries and died on the spot.”
The FIR states that Samra attempted to flee towards nearby fields but was chased down by the attackers.
“My daughter-in-law who was pregnant ran towards the fields to save her life but both accused managed to get to her and murdered her in the same brutal way, by repeatedly striking a knife on her neck, face and other parts of the body.”
According to the complaint, the suspects threatened the family before fleeing the scene.
Police confirm arrests
A spokesperson for the Hafizabad Police confirmed to Voicepk that both nominated suspects had been arrested and that further medical and forensic investigations were underway. However, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Vanike Tarar Police Station did not provide any information to Voicepk. The police spokesperson said additional details would be shared as the investigation progresses.
Family says accused had gained their trust
Speaking to Voicepk, Bilal, brother of the deceased Afzaal, said the prime accused had been maintaining contact with the family for months and had convinced them that reconciliation was possible.
“Shahid, one of the main accused and brother of Samra Bibi, had been in touch for a few months now and they were in a process of reconciliation with Samra’s family. Shahid also took a loan of around 50,000 rupees from my brother, Afzaal, because he wanted to go abroad, and my brother gave him the money.”
Bilal said the family had no reason to suspect that Shahid intended to harm the couple.
Accused confesses on video
Voicepk has obtained photographs from the crime scene as well as a video, provided by a local source, showing the accused shortly after his arrest while sitting inside a police vehicle.
In the video, the accused identifies himself as Shahid Abbas, a resident of Tibbi Bhagoki, and says:
“She was my sister and she ran off and married a boy and then she even threatened me on phone that she wants to meet our mother. I made an excuse to let them meet my mother, I picked them up from their home and when I reached this place, I killed them with a knife.”
During the recorded statement, the accused says he killed his sister and her husband because she had married a man from another caste (“Maachi”) after leaving home and later threatened him over the phone.
Family disputes the “honour” motive
Bilal disputes the suggestion that the killings were purely motivated by so-called “honour.”
“It cannot be an honour-based murder because if Shahid intended to kill his sister and her husband, he would have done that earlier when this Nikkah with my brother happened – we had sent her back to her family when they had filed a case of kidnapping against us. But she came back to her husband and our brother, Afzaal again. If Shahid wanted to kill her, he would have done that there.”
Bilal further alleged that the violence extended to the unborn child. .
“They have not only killed my brother and his wife, but also their daughter who was still unborn. My sister-in-law, Samra, was eight months pregnant and these beasts have not even spared the unborn. They pushed out the unborn child from her mother’s body and struck the unborn with a knife as well.”
However the claim about the baby was not verified.
Honour killings remain a persistent challenge
Official Punjab Police data shows that Hafizabad recorded nine honour killing cases in 2021, one in 2022, and one in 2023. According to the National Gender Data Portal’s District Analysis of Gender-Based Violence in Pakistan (2024), three honour killing cases were reported in Hafizabad during 2024.
Nationally, the trend remains alarming. According to data compiled by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 268 people — including 155 women and 113 men — were killed in the name of “honour” between January and May 2025. The figures underscore that men are also victims of so-called honour crimes, often alongside women accused of bringing “dishonour” to their families.
HRCP’s State of Human Rights 2024 report documented 178 women killed in the name of honour in Punjab alone during 2024. The report noted that such killings continued unabated, with some perpetrators attempting to disguise the murders as suicides.
Meanwhile, Punjab Police data recorded 205 honour killing cases across the province in 2024, reflecting a continued pattern of lethal violence despite existing legal protections.
The scale of GBV also remains deeply concerning.
According to Sahil’s report released recently 3,172 incidents of gender-based violence were documented across Pakistan during the first six months of 2026. The report identifies murder as the largest category, with 644 cases, followed by 514 incidents of severe physical assault and torture. It also documented 462 abductions, 363 suicides, 280 rapes, 175 injury-inflicting assaults, and 132 so-called honour killings between January and June 2026.
A killing in the Law Minister’s own backyard
Set against this backdrop, the location of the latest killings carries its own weight.
Vanike Tarar is the hometown of Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar, the Federal Minister for Law and Justice and Human Rights — the very portfolio charged with strengthening protections against precisely this kind of violence. That a couple could be lured, hunted down, and killed within the minister’s own constituency underscores how far implementation lags behind the law on the books, regardless of who represents the area in Islamabad.