Strangled Samia to death, former husband confesses

JHELUM: The former husband of Samia Shahid, a British Pakistani woman who died of ‘unnatural causes’ while visiting family here last month, has confessed to killing his ex-wife, sources in Punjab Police revealed to DawnNews on Saturday.

A police officer part of the investigation team, seeking anonymity, told DawnNews that Shakeel had confessed to strangling Samia to death after drugging her.

Police said Shakeel had killed her after Samia refused to part ways with her second husband, Syed Mukhtar Kazim. The accused went on to say he acted alone and that the deceased’s father, Chaudhry Shahid, did not have anything to do with the murder.

Shakeel was arrested after his interim bail expired. He was then presented in a local court that sent him into police custody on a four-day physical remand.

Earlier, British MP Naz Shah had written to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to intervene in the case.

British police started a probe into Samia Shahid's death after her husband Syed Mukhtar Kazim claimed she was killed while visiting her family in Pakistan because she married someone who was seen as an outsider.

Kazim, a Pakistani national, said he received news his wife Samia, a Bradford resident of Pakistani origin, had died while visiting her relatives in Pandori village near Mangla Dam.

The couple had been living in Dubai since last year, he said.

Kazim said Samia, 28, was urged to come to Pakistan to visit a seriously ill relative and was supposed to return to their home in Dubai.

Instead, he received a call a day earlier that she had died of a heart attack.

“Should this be [an honour killing] case then we must ensure justice is done for Samia and we must ensure this never happens again,” MP Naz Shah wrote to the PM in her letter seen by The Guardian.