Pregnant Pak Woman Killed, Chopped Into Pieces Over "Witchcraft" Suspicion

In a shocking incident, a pregnant woman was killed allegedly by her mother-in-law who along with her three accomplices chopped her body in dozens of pieces before dumping it in a drain in the Punjab province of Pakistan, police said on Sunday.

The incident took place last week in Daska, Sialkot district, some 100 km from Lahore.

Police arrested four suspects including the mother-in-law Sughran Bibi, her daughter Yasmin, her grandson Hamza and distant relative Navid.

Zara Qadir, who was in her 20s, went missing last week. Later police found the chopped body of a woman in three sacks which was identified as Zara.

Zara, the daughter of a police officer, married Qadir Ahmad four years ago and the couple had a three-year-old son. Zara after marriage had gone to Saudi Arabia to her husband who works there. A few months ago, she had returned to Pakistan.

Senior police officer Omar Farooq told reporters on Sunday that the suspects confessed to having killed and dismembered the body of Zara.

"In her confessional statement, Sughran Bibi said that she suspected Zara of allegedly practising 'witchcraft'. Besides, her son Qadir had started sending money directly to Zara in her bank instead to his mother." "The four suspects smothered Zara with a pillow while she was asleep. After that they burnt her face and chopped off her body into dozens of pieces before dumping it in a drain in three sacks," the police officer said and added Zara was also pregnant.

"On Zara's father's statement that he suspected Sughran for claiming that she had run away with her lover upon her disappearance, we interrogated her (Sughran) who confessed to her crime," Farooq said.

He said Sughran was also the sister of Zara's father.

"This is a case of extreme jealousy as the mother-in-law and her daughter not only killed Zara but in cold blood dismembered her body into pieces in hatred," he said and Sughran and Yasmin were of the view that because of Zara's good looks Qadir was playing into her hands and ignoring them.

A murder case has been registered against the suspects. 

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