Mayra Zulfiqar murder: Police suspect contract killer may have pulled the trigger

A week after British law graduate Mayra Zulfiqar was found shot dead in Lahore, the needle of suspicion has pointed to an unknown contract killer, who, police feel, may have pulled the trigger.

The inkling of the police is in line with her family’s suspicions that two young men whose marriage proposal she is believed to have rejected, had conspired to eliminate her, but might not have executed the plot.

One of the suspects, Saad Butt, has been arrested following the murder, while the other, Zahir Jadoon is still at large. The 26-year-old Zulfiqar was shot in her neck and arm and found in a pool of blood in her Lahore apartment.

The British woman had informed the police days before her death that Jadoon had abducted her at gunpoint and threatened to kill her and Butt had attempted to rape her. Apparently, little was done to protect her from the friends who turned rivals.

“It’s a cold-blooded murder but neither of the accused was present at the crime scene,” The Times quoted a police source as saying.

CCTV evidence confirmed that Jadoon was in Islamabad and Saad at home in Lahore at the time of the murder, the report indicated.

Zulfiqar who had visited Pakistan for a wedding and stayed on in the country was introduced to the party scene of Lahore, which the young elite enjoyed with impunity because of the clout their families have.

If sources are to believe, Jadoon, with whom the law graduate from Feltham in west London was reportedly in a relationship, has a history of holding out threats to women who resisted his advances.

“He started pursuing my friend for a romantic relationship but she rejected him. He pressured her and threatened her. But her father is a politician too, so she got away unharmed,” the report quotes an anonymous woman as saying. “The whole group is psychotic, crazy. Guns, drugs, alcohol — they do everything and no one stops them because they are rich and connected.”