‘No burqa, no mercy’: Man kills wife & 2 kids, buries them in pit

Shamli: A domestic dispute over burqa spiralled into a chilling triple murder in Shamli, with a man allegedly killing his wife and two minor daughters inside their home and burying their bodies in the courtyard. The crime, committed around midnight on Dec 9, surfaced days later after the sudden disappearance of the family raised alarm among relatives and neighburs.Police said Mohammad Farukh (37) was arrested on Wednesday after he confessed to killing his wife Taira (35) and daughters Afreen (14) and Sahreen (7) at their house in Garhi Daulat, Kandhla. The remains were exhumed late Tuesday night from a nine-foot-deep pit.Investigators said the crime was triggered when Taira stepped out of her parental home without wearing a burqa about a month ago — an act that deeply angered Farukh. Married in 2009 in Nara, Muzaffarnagar, the couple had five children.Police said Farukh, who dropped out of school in Class 5 and worked at hotels and weddings for a living, plotted the murders meticulously. Days before the murders, under the guise of constructing a toilet, he dug a deep pit in the courtyard and procured three country-made pistols and 20 cartridges, even test-firing the weapons to ensure they worked.According to the confession, on the night of the incident Farukh allegedly woke Taira on the pretext of making tea. When she stepped into the courtyard to light the stove, he shot her in the head. The gunshot alerted Afreen, who ran out and was shot next. When Sahreen woke up and came out, he strangled her. He then dumped all three bodies into the pit and sealed it.The couple's other children — Asmeen (10), Bilal (9) and Arshad (5) — slept through the night. The next morning, Farukh allegedly told them their mother and sisters had shifted to a rented accommodation in Shamli. With Taira having stayed at her parents' house for nearly a month earlier, no immediate suspicion was raised.Farukh's parents, Daud and Asgari, eventually grew suspicious after not seeing Taira and the girls for several days. Daud subsequently alerted the village head and Taira's father, Amir Ahmad, who informed Kandhla police station on Tuesday evening around 5 pm.Shamli SP NP Singh said, "Farukh explicitly cited her not wearing burqa as the reason for this barbaric act. Further investigation is underway."Police said a case has been registered against Farukh under BNS Section 103(1) (murder) and Section 238(2) (causing disappearance of evidence) along with provisions of the Arms Act. He has been arrested. Police recovered three illegal pistols, seven spent cartridges and 10 live cartridges from him. A forensic team has examined the spot and collected evidence.