A man died on Saturday night after being locked inside a trunk allegedly by a woman he was having a clandestine affair with. Muzaffargarh DPO Awais Ahmed Malik said a murder case had been registered against the woman’s father-in-law and two of her brothers-in-law.The DPO said Mushtaq Ahmad Baloch, 22, had been having an affair with his cousin Saima Bibi*, a resident of Langar Sarai, a suburb of Muzaffargarh district.Her husband had moved to Karachi for work. On Saturday night, Baloch visited her house at around 11pm. At some point in the night, the rest of the residents at the house woke up and demanded that Saima Bibi open the door to her room.Police said that she hurriedly told him to get inside a trunk and locked it. When her in-laws entered the room, they accused her of hiding her paramour in the room and said they would wait, police said.Baloch started suffocating after a while, police said. He banged on the box and started shouting and wailing for help. No one opened the box, police said. He died within 15 minutes, police said.The DPO said that they had registered a case against Saima Bibi’s father-in-law and two of her brothers-in-law.Muzaffargarh Saddar SHO Muhammad Idrees took the body for post-mortem examination.Dr Muhammad Akbar Chandia, who conducted the examination, said in his initial report that he had died of suffocation and that his life could have been saved had someone opened the box on time.Police said Saima Bibi had two daughters and Baloch was married and also had a daughter.*Names have been changed to protect identityPublished in The Express Tribune, July 11, 2016.