A Bradford MP has accused Pakistani officials of colluding in “a potential cover-up” of what she believes was the “honour” killing of one of her constituents, who married against her parents’ wishes.
Samia Shahid, 28, died last week after allegedly being tricked into travelling to Pakistan by her family, who allegedly disapproved of her love marriage to a man from a different Islamic sect.
Pakistani police investigating the death told the Guardian on Sunday that there were “no visible injuries or signs of violence” on Shahid’s body when it was found last Wednesday in the family home in Pandori, Jhelum, 50 miles (80km) south of Islamabad.
A postmortem report released on Thursday shows that her body did in fact have a “reddish brown linear horizontal bruise measuring about 19cm extending from just below [the] right ear and around the neck”.
The Guardian has seen photographs of Shahid’s body, which appear to confirm the finding. There also appear to be two purple welts around her neck. Naz Shah, Shahid’s MP in Bradford West, has accused Pakistani authorities of a potential cover-up in light of the findings.
She said on Thursday: “I originally intervened in this case to demand that there was a proper investigation into my constituent’s death, saying it had all the hallmarks of a so-called ‘honour’ killing. Having seen the autopsy report, I think we are now also looking at a case involving a potential cover-up.”
Shah said she had spoken to the Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, Syed Ibne Abbas, who told her the Pakistani ombudsman was investigating.
“I have asked for the police officer and the physician who did the first postmortem to be investigated,” the MP said. “Just a few days ago they were telling us the autopsy was inconclusive and that there were no visible signs on her body and now the autopsy report shows that there were marks on her neck.”
Shahid’s family have said variously that she died of a heart attack or an asthma attack and insist they did not kill her.
On Thursday, Shahid’s second husband, Syed Mukhtar Kazam, said he was not satisfied with the police and demanded a fresh postmortem.
“They are trying to cover up this murder,” he said. “My life has been threatened, but there is no question of being quiet. It is a question of justice and my agenda is she was killed and I need justice for her.”
He alleges that his wife was tricked into travelling to Pakistan by relatives who falsely claimed a relative had fallen ill there.
On Wednesday, a special team was set up to hunt for Shahid’s first husband, Mohammed Shakeel, who fled Pandori soon after a complaint was lodged with police on Saturday accusing him and other family members of murdering his former wife.
On Thursday, the district police officer for Jhelum, Mujahid Akbar, told the Guardian that Shakeel has been granted pre-arrest bail by the Rawalpindi high court. This procedure affords legal relief to a defendant in anticipation of a possible arrest, effectively meaning they cannot be arrested. Police said Shakeel presented himself to the authorities for questioning on Thursday.
The family insist Shahid was married to Shakeel, a first cousin, and police in Pakistan say they have not received any documents proving otherwise.
In fact, she divorced him in a UK sharia court in 2014 and then married Kazam at Leeds town hall in September 2014, after converting to Shia Islam, while her family is Sunni.
Friends of Shahid in the UK said the family felt so dishonoured by her behaviour that they did not acknowledge she had remarried.
A family member in Bradford was given a harassment warning by police in September 2015 when Shahid, who was living in Dubai, returned to the UK to try to patch things up with her family, West Yorkshire police said.
Two people, believed to be cousins of Shahid, were arrested in Bradford this week on suspicion of threatening Shah. Both were bailed on Wednesday night pending further investigations.