The murder of a 25-year old Sikh man, Ravinder Singh, hailing from the remote Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan was a case of “contract killing” and his fiancée has been arrested, the local media quoted police as saying on Friday.
Ravinder was based in Malaysia and had come to Pakistan for his wedding to be held on January 28. He was found murdered in Chamkani area of Peshawar on Saturday night. Ravinder’s 18-year-old fiancée, Prem Kumari, did not want to marry him and planned his killing, police said.
“She promised the hitmen Rs 700,000 for his murder. Part of the committed money was paid in advance, while the rest had to be paid after the murder,” a police official told local media on Friday.
After a series of raids and interrogations conducted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, local media quoted police on Friday as saying that Ravinder Singh was actually killed in town of Mardan, 68 kms from Peshawar, by hitmen who were hired by Ravinder’s fiancee. The breakthrough came when one of the hitmen was apprehended by the police in Mardan and he spilled the beans, police said.
According to the investigation team, Ravinder was murdered in Mardan and later his body was shifted to Peshawar by the hitmen to create confusion about the circumstances of his death. Police said that they had taken Prem Kumari into custody and will continue investigation.
The Indian ministry of external affairs had issued a statement saying it condemned “the killing of minority Sikh community member in Peshawar targeted”.
