Woman Kills daughter-in-law in Takht Bhai bazar

Imtiaz Khan furthered, the deceased was a mother of two young children, and the families of the deceased and the accused are close relatives.

Abdul Sattar

A mother-in-law, on Wednesday, shot her young daughter-in-law dead in Meena Bazaar of Takht Bhai, Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As per the police report, the accused has been arrested after the incident.

Speaking to TNN, Inspector Imtiaz Khan, the investigating officer of Takht Bhai police station, the 40-year-old accused Zaitoon confessed to the crime and told the police that she shot her daughter-in-law dead after a verbal altercation with her.

He further said the accused's son, Atif Khan, works as a laborer in Punjab, while after a verbal argument, the 25-year-old daughter-in-law was insisting on leaving home, so she shot and killed her in a crowded market.

''She said that she would tell her brother and father about the quarrel, I asked her not to do so, but she still left the house, and I followed her and shot her with a pistol," the alleged killer confessed.

Imtiaz Khan furthered, the deceased was a mother of two young children, and the families of the deceased and the accused are close relatives.

He said that with the rising rate of inflation in the country, more reports are coming to the police regarding domestic disputes.

Immediately after the incident, the police arrested the accused and the pistol was also taken into custody. Whereas the body of the deceased was shifted to hospital Takhtbhai for post-mortem.

The police officials said they registered a case against the woman on the complaint of Muhammad Saleem, a brother of the slain Kainat, and started further investigation into the case.

On the other hand, Shad Begum, a social activist who works for women's rights, told TNN that whoever commits the crime, whether a man or a woman, he/she will be a criminal, but this incident reflects the oppressive thinking that the powerful uses against the weak in our society, a mother-in-law oppresses the daughter-in-law and there is no one to question her.

She said that in our society, a girl is told on the occasion of her marriage that now she belongs to her husband's house and that she can leave the place only when she is dead, which is why when the husband, the mother-in-law, or father-in-law, or anyone else from the in-laws suppresses her she has to suffer.

"She tolerates whoever does injustice to her because no one asks, including her parents, and there is no other support as well,'' said the activist.

Condemning this incident, she said that when this kind of incident takes place in the society, it is considered as a personal problem of the family in the Jirga, whereas it is not a personal problem at all, but a problem of killing a human being.

She further said that people should tell their daughters and sisters that if they are being oppressed by their in-laws, by their husband, or any member of the family, instead of staying silent, they should raise their voices for their rights.

"But unfortunately, most people consider their daughters and daughters-in-law as a burden which is why most of the women continue to suffer oppression.