ISLAMABAD: Rawalpindi police said on Saturday they had taken two people into custody for questioning over the death of 45-year-old Hina Javed, who was found with her hands bound and a wire around her neck, in a suspected domestic violence case police are investigating as murder.
Javed was found in the bathroom of a second-floor flat at Askari Apartments in Rawalpindi’s Lalkurti area on Thursday morning, according to a police complaint, formally known in Pakistan as a First Information Report (FIR). Her family has accused Javed’s husband, Faisal Asghar Imam, his domestic worker, Zeeshan Arshad, and his father, Asghar Ali Fayyaz, of involvement in her death.
Javed married Imam in November last year.
A senior Rawalpindi police official confirmed to Arab News that Javed’s husband and the domestic worker were in police custody for questioning as investigators awaited forensic and postmortem findings.
“The two accused Hina’s husband and the domestic worker are in police custody for the investigation,” Chaudhry Asar Ali, Senior Superintendent of Police, Pothohar Region, said. “Their formal arrest is not registered yet as the investigation is at initial state. We are still waiting for the forensic report, DNA test outcome and the postmortem report to proceed further.”
Ali added that investigations in such cases usually take time.
Asked about the family’s demand for the arrest of Javed’s father-in-law, a former army officer who was present at the apartment when the body was found, Ali said police could not make arrests solely on the demands of victims’ families.
“The investigations are still on,” he continued. “If needed the victim’s father-in-law can be included in investigation.”
In a statement issued to the media, Javed’s family expressed faith in Pakistan’s legal and judicial system but demanded the arrest of her father-in-law.
“We are deeply concerned that Hina’s father-in-law, whom the family believes to be complicit in her death, has not yet been arrested,” it said. “We demand that he be taken into custody without further delay and that his role be fully investigated.”
The statement said every person who “enabled, concealed, or participated in this crime must face the law.”
“Partial accountability is no accountability,” it added.
The family urged Punjab Police and relevant authorities to ensure that the investigation was conducted “with complete transparency, free from any influence, pressure, or delay.”
“Violence against women in our homes is not a private matter,” it continued. “It is a crime, and it must be treated as one.”
The case came to light after Javed’s father-in-law called her brother, Fahad Javed Malik, on Thursday morning and told him there was an emergency.
Malik and other family members rushed to the apartment, where they found Javed dead.
“My sister, Hina Javed, was lying dead in the bathroom,” Malik told police, according to the complaint. “Both of her hands were tied behind her back with a piece of cloth, her mouth was gagged with cloth, a wire was tied around her neck, and a wire wrapped around her neck was tied to the bath shower. Foam and blood were coming out of her mouth.”
Speaking to Arab News on Friday, Malik said his sister had complained of abuse before her death.
“The couple has been going through such issues for some time after their marriage,” he said. “The victim has complained of repeated abuse in the past too.”
He said Javed worked for a semi-government organization, while her husband had at times been unemployed.
Violence against women remains widespread in Pakistan and is not confined to poorer or less educated households. One of the country’s most high-profile cases was the 2021 murder of Noor Mukadam, the 27-year-old daughter of a former Pakistani diplomat, at an upscale Islamabad home.
Mukadam’s killer, Zahir Jaffer, came from a wealthy and influential business family.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld Jaffer’s death sentence in 2025 and rejected his review petition in June this year.
