Zahida and Husna sought police protection but SDM sent them home

Two Muslim women in an Uttar Pradesh town, 40 km east of Delhi, allegedly killed their daughters because they had eloped and married migrant Bihari Hindu labourers, police said.

The victims had sought police protection after they returned to their homes in Baghpat earlier this week, but the subdivisional magistrate sent them home to reconcile with their mothers.

On Wednesday night, Khatun and Subrato, both of whom are widows, allegedly tied their daughters, 19-year-old Zahida and 26-year-old Husna, to cots and threw a rope around their necks. They then held the girls down and tightened the noose until the victims suffocated to death, police said.

Khatun and Subrato have been arrested. A third woman called Momina, their neighbour in Baghpat's Muslim-dominated Mughalpura area, who allegedly helped them commit the murders, is on the run.

"We killed them because they had brought shame to our community. How could they elope with Hindus? They deserved to die. We have no remorse," Khatun and Subrato said Friday.

The women said each killed her daughter at home. Police, however, suspect that Khatun, Subrato and Momina committed the murders together, strangling the victims one after another. Khatun and Subrato live in different lanes in the same locality.

Zahida and Husna were good friends who fell in love with two men, who worked at a construction site nearby. The couples eloped to Bihar on May 3, where they got married, police said.

"The couples, who returned on May 10, came to the police station and sought protection. We referred the matter to the subdivisional magistrate," said Anil Kumar Kusan, SHO, Baghpat.

The SDM called in Khatun and Subrato, made them sign a bond promising that they would not harm their daughters, and sent Zahida and Husna home.

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