A father has been accused of helping to murder his British beauty therapist daughter in an alleged honour killing.
Police in Pakistan claimed Muhammed Shadid held the legs of his daughter, Samia Shadid, 28, as she was raped and strangled with a scarf by her ex-husband, Mohammed Shakeel.
Police said Samia was the victim of a “devious plan” by her family, who wanted her dead because she left the cousin she was forced to marry.
Also, Samia’s mother and younger sister, who both live in London, have been declared wanted for questioning by the police in the United Kingdom and Pakistan in connection with the crime.
The two were accused of luring Samia to Pakistan from Dubai, where she lived with her second husband, Syed Mukhtar Kazam, by lying to her that her father was very ill.
According to prosecutors, at the time of her death, Samia was visiting her home in Punjab, Pakistan, after allegedly being told by her mother, Imtiaz Bibi and younger sister, Madiha Shahid, in Bradford that her father was gravely ill.
They are wanted on suspicion of “abetting the murder”. Prosecutors claim the pair used emotional blackmail in “a devious plan” to lure Samia from the UAE to Pakistan.
The pair were said to have fled their home in Bradford before Christmas for a secret location in the city.
The incident occured on July 20, last year, a day before Samia was due to return to Dubai, but the duo of Shadid and Shakeel were only recently charged to court in Pakistan.
Court papers in Pakistan claimed that after arriving at her ancestral village in the Punjab, her first husband, Shakeel, was ordered by her father to watch her at all times.
“On July 20, the day before she was due to return to her second husband, Syed Mukhtar Kazam, in Dubai, she refused to tell Shakeel where her passport and plane ticket were kept.
“Shakeel terrorised her and threw her on the bed and raped her, prosecutors claim. Shakeel started to strangle her with her scarf while Shahid held her legs,” the charges read.
Shakeel is accused of Samia’s rape and murder. He remains in custody. Her father Shahid is accused of assisting in her murder. He was released on bail two weeks ago after a court in Pakistan found there was insufficient evidence to keep him in custody.
Samia’s family claim her second marriage was illegal because she had never obtained a proper divorce.
But her second husband, Kazam, 30, claimed she angered her parents by converting to Shia Islam, his sect, and she was murdered for bringing “dishonour” to the family.
Kazam also released a shocking photo of his wife’s body showing the red mark around her neck, while insisting: “I want the world to know that she didn’t die of natural causes. She was murdered. I’m shattered. I can’t describe my pain; she is such a great loss.”
But Samia’s father has insisted he was innocent of the crime. He said he met her daughter already dead when he arrived at her home the day of the incident.
In his first interview since his arrest, Shahid said: “I saw Samia lying dead with some froth forming at her mouth. She may have fallen downstairs or somebody gave her something.
“I didn’t touch her body and called police. I asked them to perform autopsy. The police lifted up her body. I handed over all her belongings including her mobile phone.”
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