Pak police says murder of Sikh man plotted by fiancee

PTI, Jan 10, 2020, 4:36 PM IST

Peshawar: The death of a 25-year-old Sikh man in Pakistan has turned out to be a “contract killing”, according to the police, who have arrested her fiancee, who did not want to marry him.

On Saturday, Parvinder Singh was shot dead by unknown gunmen weeks before his marriage in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. His killing drew sharp condemnation from India which demanded exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the crime.

The blind murder case of Singh has been traced and his 18-year-old fiancee Prem Kumari has been arrested for her alleged involvement in plotting the murder, police said.

A senior security official told The Express Tribune on Thursday that it was a “contract killing” paid for by his fiancee, Prem Kumari, who didn’t want to marry Singh, who lived in the remote Shangla district of the province.

“She promised the hitmen Rs 700,000 for his murder,” the official added.

“Part of the committed money was paid in advance, while the rest had to be paid after the murder.”

The investigation team led by Peshawar’s capital city police officer cracked the blind murder case after four days of arduous investigations in which officials from other investigative and intelligence agencies also provided valuable clues, the report said.

Their marriage was fixed for January 28. The police in its initial report stated that Singh and Prem loved each other and their engagement was done with their consent and both even started preparations for their marriage.

However, Prem later started a friendship with a Muslim boy who happened to be the brother of her friend.

The police informed that Prem called Singh to Mardan and took him to a home where Prem’s friend with other accomplices killed Singh.

The killers later shifted the body of Singh from Mardan to Peshawar and threw it in the open fields near Chamakani, a rural area of Peshawar district where police found the body on January 5.

Prem even agreed to convert to marry the Muslim friend, police said, adding that they are also trying to arrest other accused involved in this murder case.

Prem’s family lives in Mohallah Sherdad Abad Mardan district. Her father is a Hindu and mother is a Sikh.

Singh had returned to Pakistan after spending working in Malaysia for six years.

The murder took place a day after a mob attacked Gurdwara Nankana Sahib where Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev was born.

India on Sunday strongly condemned the “targeted killing” of the minority Sikh community member in Peshawar.

Minorities in Muslim-majority Pakistan make up some two percent of the country’s total population.

Pakistan has witnessed violence against religious minorities in the past as al-Qaeda and Taliban-led militants regularly target Christian, Sikhs, Hindus, Ahmadis and Shiite communities in the country.