A Pakistan-origin Australian woman named Sajida Tasneem was brutally hacked to death by her father-in-law, Mukhtar Ahmad in Karachi, Pakistan. Tasneem was allegedly gagged and then hit on the head with an axe, leading to her death. The incident reportedly occurred on June 11 at the home she shared with her in-laws near the city of Sargodha in Pakistan. Her father Sher Muhammad Khan was a witness to the brutal act.
Mukhtar Ahmed, according to reports, was enraged by the prospect of Sajida Tasneem, an engineer by profession, returning to Australia with her children. He is said to have killed her after the two got into an argument about the same.
Sher Muhammad Khan, Tasneem’s father, who was a witness to the incident, told The Guardian, that his daughter’s father-in-law Mukhtar Ahmad had taken away Tasneem’s passport after the latter got into an argument with him about her desire to relocate back to Australia to give her children a better education. Ahmed in a fit of rage first gagged her with a piece of cloth and then attacked her with an axe. Tasneem fell to the ground and died in front of her own father.
She Muhammad Khan told the police that Tasneem’s husband, Ayub Ahmed, forced her to travel to Pakistan with her three children from their home in Perth, Australia. After she reached Pakistan, Ayub Ahmed himself returned to Australia. Tasneem too expressed her desire to her father-in-law to return to Australia with her children.
Sher Muhammad Khan said that on the day of the incident when he arrived at his daughter’s house in Karachi’s Sargodha district at around 1.45 pm, he heard Ahmad abusing and shouting at Tasneem on the first floor. When he went upstairs, he found the duo in the bathroom. His daughter’s mouth was gagged and the father-in-law Mukhtar Ahmad was repeatedly attacking her. Ahmed also threatened to kill Khan if he tried to intervene. “I feared for our lives and did not move,” recalled Khan adding that Ahmad then hit Tasneem on the head with an axe, after which she died at the scene.
After Tasneem fell to the ground and died on spot, Ahmed quickly fled the crime scene. Sher Muhammad Khan immediately called the local Superior Town Police Station to report about the crime. Based on his complaint the police lodged an FIR and started investigating the case.
The Karachi police, meanwhile, have arrested Mukhtar Ahmed and also recovered the axe which he used to kill his daughter-in-law. Tasneem’s mother-in-law, Fatima Bibi, and two other relatives who are also suspects in the case remain at large.
Police deputy superintendent, Syed Saqlain Jaffer was quoted by The Guardian as saying, “the crime tool, the axe through which the murder was committed, has also been recovered. It shows the involvement of Ahmad. The investigation is ongoing. We are investigating the presence of other family members at the crime scene.”
Jaffer added that Tasneem’s three children were now with him and the Australian embassy had been contacted for further formalities.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it had made contact with the family to offer its condolences.