Karachi man boils wife in cauldron in front of children, flees

KARACHI: A mother of six children was killed and boiled in a pot by her husband in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi on Wednesday.

Nargis's body was discovered in a cauldron in the kitchen of a private school in Block 4 of Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

Mobina Town police arrived at the school after the victim's 15-year-old daughter dialled the police helpline —15. The cops took the deceased to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

According to District East SSP Abdur Rahim Sherazi, who shared preliminary investigation details with The News, the woman's husband, Ashiq, from Bajaur Agency, worked as a watchman at the school and lived in the school's servant quarters. He stated that the school had been closed for about eight to nine months. Following the harrowing incident, the suspect fled with his three children, while the remaining three children are in police custody. "We have three children with us," said SSP Sherazi. "They are shaken and traumatised."

He claimed that preliminary investigations and the children's statements suggested that the suspect asphyxiated his wife with a pillow before boiling her in the cauldron in front of his children. One of the woman's legs had also been severed from her body.

The real reason for the incident has yet to be determined. However, it has been reported that the husband forced his wife to engage in illicit relationships and then murdered her when she refused to obey him.

A case has been registered and raids are being carried out for the arrest of the suspect. "We have his [suspect] two cell phone numbers but he has switched off both of them," the officer said. "We are tracing him and will arrest him soon."

The shocking event brought back the horrific memories of a similar incident that occurred about 11 years ago when, in November 2011, police arrested a woman for killing her husband and attempting to cook his body parts after he planned to marry another woman without her permission.

The police had arrested Zainab Bibi, 32, and her nephew Zaheer, 22, in Shah Faisal Colony, and recovered a bowl of flesh she had planned to cook. "They killed Ahmed Abbas, Zainab’s husband, and chopped his body into pieces, and were about to cook the flesh in a bowl. The knife with which they killed the man has been recovered," the police said.

Television networks had showed gruesome footage of human flesh in a bowl ready for the stove.