SUKKUR: Waqar Ali Umrani, the prime suspect in the infamous Tahira Khoso honour killing case was found shot dead on Thursday in a similar manner he had allegedly killed his wife on March 19 in Dangar Mohalla of Jacobabad.

The murder had triggered a storm of condemnations and protests by almost all human and women rights organisations of the country prompting the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the matter.

Ms Khoso, the granddaughter of Khan Mohammed Amin Khan Khoso — a leading Pakistan Movement figure — came from a highly respectable family of Jacobabad. Mr Umrani, along with three other male members of his family, was brutally torturing her when her father, Abdul Samee Khoso, brother Arshad Mehmood and uncle Mohammed Iqbal, visited the couple’s house on March 19, according to the case details. The torture episode ended with Mr Umrani, who had accused her of having an extramarital affair, firing a shot on her neck, Ms Khoso’s family stated in their petition filed in a court. All the suspects fled the scene and the victim was rushed to a hospital where she succumbed to her wounds.

Police could not arrest the suspects and his associates who, according to the petitioner family, were being protected by some influential figures belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party.

During the Aug 5 hearing of the case taken up under a suo motu notice, the SC had issued a final show-cause notice to Jacobabad SSP Malik Zafar Iqbal Awan asking him to arrest and produce Mr Umrani on Sept 16. However, the suspect was killed in an apparently revengeful act.

His body bore visible torture marks and a gunshot wound in the neck.

Baba Kot police said that some villagers spotted Mr Umrani lying in a pool of blood in the front seat of his car at about 3am near Sardar Fateh Ali Khan Umrani village, located in Tamboo taluka of Naseerabad district of Balochistan.

Pesticide fumes kill man, nephew

A grower, Ghulam Nabi Ghoto, and his nephew, Abdullah Ghoto, died and their relative, Ghulam Rasool, fell unconscious under the effects of the pesticide they were spraying on the sugar cane crop in Murad Ghoto village of Ghotki district.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2015

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