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Husband, mother-in-law indicted in grisly murder of woman with dumbbells in Islamabad

In this screengrab taken on September 29, 2022, shows a police official escorting prime accused Shahnawaz Amir (right), in the Sarah Inam murder case, to court in Islamabad. (Photo courtesy: Shahid Saqlain/YouTube)
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Updated 05 December 2022
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Husband, mother-in-law indicted in grisly murder of woman with dumbbells in Islamabad

  • The court calls on the prosecution to summon witnesses on December 14, trial to be conducted by same judge who heard grisly murder case of Noor Mukadam 
  • 37-year-old Sarah Inam was allegedly murdered by husband on September 23 after she traveled to Pakistan when Shahnawaz Amir asked for divorce over text messages
Updated 05 December 2022
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court on Monday indicted Shahnawaz Amir and his mother Sameena Shah in the grisly September murder of Pakistani-Canadian Sarah Inam, calling on the prosecution to summon its witnesses on December 14, the Inam family lawyer said.

Inam, a 37-year-old economist who worked in Abu Dhabi, was murdered with dumbbells, according to police, by her husband Shahnawaz Amir at a suburban Islamabad home on September 23.

Inam got married to the Amir of her own choice on July 18 in his hometown of Chakwal. The parents of the couple were not present at the event. Inam’s family has said she had met Amir only thrice before the marriage and had told the parents about the relationship after the marriage.

The indictment was issued by sessions court judge Atta Rabbani after he dismissed Shah’s application seeking to be discharged from the case. 

“Both Amir and Shah have been charged in the murder case and have been informed about all the charges against them,” Inam's family lawyer, Rao Abdul Raheem, told Arab News.

Shah’s lawyer Nisar Asghar said both suspects had pleaded not guilty.

“Shah is charged with abatement to a crime under section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Amir is charged with murder under section 302 of the PPC,” Asghar told Arab News.

Raheem said the formal trial would now start and the court had asked the prosecutors to present witnesses on December 14.

“We expect that this would be a speedy trial like the Noor Mukadam murder case and the court will decide this case within three to five months,” he said. 

The judge hearing the case was the same one who heard the Mukadam case, the lawyer said, referring to the 27-year-old daughter of a diplomat who was beheaded by a male friend last year in a case that drew an outpouring of anger over femicides in the South Asian nation.

According to the first information report in the Inam murder case, Amir’s mother was present in the house at the time of the murder and had called the police on September 23 and informed them that her son had murdered his wife with a dumbbell. 

The police citation submitted by an investigation officer from Shahzad town police station said following an argument, Amir hit Inam with a showpiece and then hit her repeatedly with a dumbbell which caused her death. 

The police citation also said Amir had told police that after a fight with Inam over the phone while she was still in Abu Dhabi, the suspect had told her he wanted a divorce. This happened two days before the murder. 

Inam then traveled to Pakistan and arrived at Amir’s farmhouse in Chak Shehzad, Islamabad, from Abu Dhabi on September 22. The couple had an argument in Amir’s bedroom as Inam asked him about money she had wired him. The suspect subsequently beat her to death. 

After the murder, the accused dragged Inam’s body to the bathroom and hid it in the bathtub.

Speaking about the decision to indict Shah in the case, Raheem said:

“She [Shah] was present in the house at the time of the murder, and she is the owner of the house where CCTV cameras stopped working just two days prior to the incident.”

The lawyer added: “When she [Inam] was in Abu Dhabi, Amir divorced her through a message on WhatsApp and she then came to Islamabad to know the reasons behind divorcing her in such a way.”

Shah’s lawyer Asghar said the divorce was not finalized as it was just pronounced in a message while legal requirements had not yet been completed. 

“These are two different things, one is pronouncement of the divorce and the other is its completion, which requires issuance of a certificate by the same union council where Nikah took place,” he said.

“It does not mean that divorce has been completed as per the procedure given in the family laws of Pakistan. It was just pronounced but not confirmed and technically by the law, she was not divorced,” Asghar added.

Hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan every year, while thousands more suffer brutal violence. But few cases receive sustained media attention, and only a small fraction of perpetrators are ever punished or convicted by courts.

But Mukadam’s shocking murder, involving members of the privileged elite of Pakistani society, triggered an explosive reaction from women’s rights activists reckoning with pervasive violence.

It also increased pressure for a swift conclusion of the trial in a country known to have a sluggish justice system and where cases typically drag on for years.

Mukadam’s killer Zahir Jaffer received the death sentence in March but has appealed it in a higher court. The case is ongoing.

Topics: Sarah Inam murder case Sarah Inam

Daesh claims suicide blast at Islamabad mosque that killed at least 31

Updated 13 sec ago
AFP
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Daesh claims suicide blast at Islamabad mosque that killed at least 31

  • The attack comes as Pakistan’s forces battle intensifying insurgencies in southern and northern provinces that border Afghanistan
  • The last major attack in Islamabad took place in November when a suicide blast outside a court killed 12 people and wounded dozens
Updated 13 sec ago
AFP

ISLAMABAD: A suicide blast claimed by the Daesh (Islamic State) group at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad killed at least 31 people on Friday, with 169 more wounded in the deadliest attack in Pakistan’s capital since the 2008 Marriott hotel bombing.

City officials said 31 people died in the explosion at the Imam Bargah Qasr-e-Khadijatul Kubra mosque in the Tarlai area on the city’s outskirts, with scores more being treated for injuries. The death toll was expected to rise further.

The blast occurred at Friday prayers, when mosques around the country are packed with worshippers.

“The attacker was stopped at the gate and detonated himself,” a security source told AFP.

Daesh said one of its militants had targeted the congregation, detonating an explosive vest and “inflicting a large number of deaths and injuries,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors such communications.

Muhammad Kazim, a 52-year-old worshipper, said an “extremely powerful” explosion ripped through the building as prayers were just starting.

“During the first bow of the Namaz (prayer ritual), we heard gunfire,” he told AFP.

“And while we were still in the bowing position, an explosion occurred,” he said.

Another worshipper, Imran Mahmood, told AFP there was a gunfight between the bomber, a possible accomplice and volunteer security personnel at the mosque.

“The suicide attacker was trying to move forward, but one of our injured volunteers fired at him from behind, hitting him in the thigh,” he told AFP.

He then “detonated the explosives,” Mahmood, in his fifties, added.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed that those behind the blast would be found and brought to justice.

The attack was the deadliest in the Pakistani capital since September 2008, when 60 people were killed in a suicide truck bomb blast that destroyed part of the five-star Marriott hotel.

BODIES, BLOODIED CLOTHING, DEBRIS

AFP journalists at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital saw several people, including children, being carried in on stretchers or by their arms and legs.

Medics and bystanders helped unload victims with blood-soaked clothes from the back of ambulances and vehicles. At least one casualty arrived in the boot of a car.

Friends and relatives of the wounded wept and screamed as victims — dead or alive — arrived at the hospital’s heavily guarded emergency ward.

Another team of AFP journalists saw armed security forces outside the mosque, where pools of blood were visible on the ground.

Yellow crime-scene tape surrounded an investigation area, with shoes, clothing and broken glass scattered around the site.

Videos shared on social media, which AFP was not able to verify immediately, showed several bodies lying near the mosque’s front gate, with people and debris also strewn across the red-carpeted prayer hall.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar branded the attack “a heinous crime against humanity and a blatant violation of Islamic principles.”

“Pakistan stands united against terrorism in all its forms,” he said in a post on X.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “attacks against civilians and places of worship are unacceptable,” according to his spokesman.

GROWING INSURGENCIES

The attack comes as Pakistan’s security forces battle intensifying insurgencies in southern and northern provinces that border Afghanistan.

Pakistan is a Sunni-majority nation, but Shiites make up between 10 and 15 percent of the population and have been targeted in attacks throughout the region in the past.

Islamabad has said separatist armed groups in southern Balochistan, and the Pakistani Taliban and other militants in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near Islamabad, have used Afghan territory as a safe haven from which to launch attacks.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has repeatedly denied Pakistan’s accusations.

Bilateral relations have plummeted, with forces from both sides regularly clashing along the border.

The last major attack in Islamabad took place in November when a suicide blast outside a court killed 12 people and wounded dozens, the first such incident to hit the capital in nearly three years.

In Balochistan, attacks claimed by separatist insurgents last week killed 36 civilians and 22 security personnel, prompting a wave of counter-operations in which authorities said security forces killed almost 200 militants.

Topics: Blast Islamabad Pakistan Mosque blast

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