The father and the ex-husband of a British woman who was the victim of an alleged “honour” killing have appeared in court in Pakistan.
Samia Shahid’s first husband, Chaudhry Shakeel, and her father, Mohammad Shahid, were remanded in custody for an initial four days by a judge in the city of Jhelum.
Samia Shahid, 28, from Bradford, died while visiting her family in northern Punjab last month. Her second husband, Mukhtar Syed Kazam, said he believed his wife had been killed because her family disapproved of their marriage. Police launched a murder investigation last week after a forensic examination found she had died from asphyxiation.
Aqeel Abbas, an officer at Mangla police station, said: “We will interrogate the two accused and try to get to the bottom of this case.” He said a third suspect, believed to be Shahid’s cousin Mobin, was still at large.
The lawyer for the suspects, Mian Mohammad Arif, said the judge presiding over the case had refused to extend the pre-arrest bail of Chaudhry Shakeel and ordered his arrest.
“Soon after, the police presented Shakeel and Samia’s father, saying they just arrested them. This goes to show that the police were illegally detaining them, but the judge refused our plea of habeas corpus, which I had filed last week,” he said.
“My clients were both very quiet in the courts. I may go to see them while they are in police custody to prepare my case. The authorities will present them on 17 August next.”
Deputy inspector general Abu Bakar Khuda Bukhsh, who is leading the investigation, said: “We have only arrested the prime suspects. The investigation has yet to conclude. We will now gather evidence and through that evidence we will be able to ascertain if he [Shakeel] did commit the murder, and if the father was involved or not.”
Police may apply to keep Shakeel and Mohammad Shahid in custody after the initial four-day remand period expires.
It has been alleged that Samia Shahid was tricked into travelling to Pakistan in July and killed for divorcing her first husband and remarrying against the wishes of her family.
After her arranged marriage to Shakeel, her cousin, broke down, she married Kazam, converting from Sunni to Shia Islam, and moved with him to Dubai in 2014. The victim’s family have strenuously denied allegations that they killed her and originally claimed she had suffered a heart attack. Shahid’s father then claimed she had killed herself.
The investigation into Shahid’s death began only after Kazam contacted her friends in the UK and then filed an official complaint with the police in Mangla.
The case, which has been highlighted by the Bradford West MP Naz Shah, has become a priority for Pakistan after the interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, ordered an investigation.
On Friday a journalist in Pakistan who has been investigating Shahid’s death said he had made a complaint to police after receiving death threats from a British man.
Raja Waqar said he had received five disturbing phone calls in which he was told he would be killed and his children would also be harmed if he continued to pursue information about Shahid’s death.
Waqar, who works for AAJ TV in Karachi, said he had begun receiving calls from a British mobile number on 24 July. The calls, from a man who identified himself only as Ali, continued for two days and became increasingly disturbing, he said.