August 13, 2026
By Iqra Manzoor
LAHORE
Four individuals, including three brothers, and a brother in law of the victim, confessed to poisoning their sister in the name of “honour” and initially made it appear to be a suicide, said Lodhran police.
The FIR was registered on the complaint of the police at Sadar Kahror Pacca police station, district Lodhran, on August 5. According to the FIR, the incident took place on August 2, around 2 AM. The case has been registered under sections 302, 311 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
According to the FIR, police received a call from ‘P’, who informed them that her sister ‘K’, who was living at her brother Ashiq Hussain’s residence in Vigomall village, had been beaten by Ashiq Hussain and others, and that as a result, ‘K’ had consumed poison (a pesticide spray). She said she had learned of her sister’s death from relatives.
Police state in the FIR that they began an initial investigation under section 174 of the CrPC, based on the information and the complaint filed by the deceased’s sister, and that a postmortem was conducted at THQ Hospital, Kahror Pacca.
Confession
The FIR states that village headman Zawar Hussain and another local resident, Muhammad Siddique, were present at the headman’s settlement when the four accused — Muhammad Ijaz, Ghulam Shabbir and Muhammad Yasin, brothers of the deceased, and Muhammad Aslam, her brother-in-law — arrived and confessed. They allegedly told those present that their sister ‘K’ was a woman of “bad character” who was involved in an illicit affair with a man named Altaf. According to the FIR, this had led to a fight between K’s husband, Faiz, and Altaf around four to five months earlier. Altaf had filed a complaint against Faiz, who is currently in jail, and had also sought the annulment of Faiz and K’s marriage.
According to the confession recorded in the FIR, the four accused stated, “We mutually consulted with each other and, to remove the stain of bad reputation, we beat our sister K on August 2 at around 2 AM and forced her to drink poisonous spray liquid.”
The FIR further details that Muhammad Aslam and Ghulam Shabbir confessed to stuffing a cloth into K’s mouth and choking her, while Ijaz and Yasin held her legs. Shabbir also blocked her nose; when she opened her mouth to breathe, Aslam poured the poisonous spray liquid into it.
The postmortem report noted signs of violence on the deceased’s body, including bruises on her neck.
Police and local accounts
Muhammad Siddique, the Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, told Voicepk, “Two sisters of the family had already eloped and married of their own choice. The accused confessed to the crime and told police their sister was involved in an illicit relationship with Altaf and wanted to dissolve her marriage. That’s why the three brothers and the brother-in-law killed her.”
“They tried to strangle her for about an hour, but she did not die. Then one of them forcibly gave her pesticide spray liquid, which caused her death,” he said, adding that samples of the spray have been sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) for further examination.
“The deceased was known in the area for extramarital relationships,” said Rana Asif Haneef, a local journalist, speaking to Voicepk. “She was married but was having an affair with a man named Altaf, and was also seeking dissolution of her marriage to Faiz. Her brothers, according to reports and the investigation, had repeatedly told her to stop. She was angry with her brothers and had been living with her elder brother, Ashiq Hussain. The three brothers — Shabbir, Ijaz and Yasin — feared for their family’s so called honour and reputation in the area, and so planned to murder her.”
Honour killings in Punjab
According to a report by the Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO), a total of 89 honour killing cases were reported across Punjab between January and June 2025. Official data on the Punjab Police website shows 7 reported honour killing cases in 2021, 5 in 2022, and one in 2023.