A triple murder in Pakistan that resulted in the arrests of a Pakistani-Norwegian couple and their son over the weekend is now being linked to a complicated family feud. Police won’t categorize the murders as a so-called “honor killing,” while Norwegian media are reporting that they’re tied to the disputed marriage of the arrested couple’s younger daughter.
She was the one who reported her own parents and brother to Norwegian police over the weekend, leading to a major police operation that resulted in charges being filed against all three. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that the parents were ordered held in isolation for at least the next two weeks, pending further investigation, while the son’s custody order was under appeal.
Newspaper Aftenposten reported Wednesday, meanwhile, that another man has been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the murders of three men (two brothers and their father) in Gujrat and Randheer in northeastern Pakistan. Police in Gujrat told Aftenposten that they think the arrested man can lead them to the murderer, who allegedly acted with the support of the couple and their son in Norway.
Police station chief Saif Ullah Virk told Aftenposten the murders are linked to a complicated family feud over the secret marriage of the couple’s younger daughter to the brother of a cousin to whom she’d reportedly been promised. The spurned cousin was said to have became furious, allegedly shooting his father and one of his brothers in Gujrat and then driving to Randheer where he allegedly shot and killed the other brother who had secretly married the young woman living in Oslo.
Police in Pakistan said the alleged murderer “had the understanding” of the woman’s father in Oslo, who also was his uncle. The defense attorney for the 64-year-old Pakistani-Norwegian man charged in Oslo refused comment. Both his client and the 64-year-old’s wife and son have denied any involvement in the three murders in Pakistan.
The couple has two daughters, both in their 20s and both married to two brothers.The murder victims are one of these two brothers, reported Aftenposten, along with a third brother and their father. The other daughter’s husband remains the only one of the brothers living in Oslo.
The murder case led to calls on Wednesday for more and better cooperation between police in Pakistan and Norway, which has a large immigrant community from Pakistan. NRK reported that Norway’s embassy in Pakistan has only one person coordinating information between the two countries in such criminal cases.
Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
Please support our news service. Readers in Norway can use our donor account. Our international readers can click on our “Donate” button:
