Nazir Ahmad | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Nazir AHMAD

Classification: Mass murderer

Characteristics: Parricide

Number of victims: 4

Date of murders:

December 24,

2005

Date of arrest:

Next day

(surrenders

)

Date of birth: 1965

Victims profile: Muqaddas Bibi, 25; Bano Bibi, 12; Sumera, 8 and Humera, 6

(his daughters

)

Method of murder: Stabbing with a butcher's knife and a machete

Location: Punjab,

Pakistan

Status: Unknown

Nazir Ahmad is a 40-year-old Pakistani man who killed his three daughters and his stepdaughter as his wife, Rehmat Bibi, watched. When Ahmad's eldest (step) daughter, 25-year-old Muqadas Bibi, married a man against his wishes, he slit her throat with a machete in retribution while she slept.

He then killed his other young daughters Bano Bibi, Sumera, and Humera because he "thought the younger girls would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated. We are poor people and we have nothing else to protect but our honor."

He was arrested the next day. The ages of the daughters is not clear as the Associated Press reports them as 12, 8, and 4; the Khaleej Times reports them as 12, 10, and 6; and the Daily Times reports them as 12, 8, and 6 respectively.

Both Ahmad and Muqadas' husband claimed that she had run away because she had committed adultery, but the real reason was because her husband had physically abused her and forced her to work in a brick-making factory.

"Women are treated as property and those committing crimes against them do not get punished," said the rights commission's director, Kamla Hyat. "The steps taken by our government have made no real difference."

Ahmad said he bought a butcher's knife and a machete after Friday Jum'ah prayer and hid them in his house.

His wife Rehmat told reporters, "I was shivering with fear. I did not know how to save my daughters. I begged my husband to spare my daughters but he said, 'If you make a noise, I will kill you.' The whole night the bodies of my daughters lay in front of me."

Ahmed told police that he was "an honorable father and I slaughtered my dishonored daughter and the three other girls. I wish that I get a chance to eliminate the boy she ran away with and set his home on fire."

An estimated 267 honor killings took place in Pakistan in 2005.

Man butchers his four daughters in Pakistan

25 December 2005

ISLAMABAD - A labourer slit throats of his four daughters in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province when his eldest daughter married of her own choice, a news report said on Sunday.

The Daily Times said Nazeer Ahmed, a resident of Burewala town of Punjab, committed the crime late Saturday while girls were sleeping at home.

“He brought his married daughter Muqaddas Bibi, 25, home from her in-laws. They had dinner and when all girls slept, he butchered them with sharp knife,” senior police officer, Mukhtar Iqbal Tikka told the newspaper.

Tikka said the labourer killed his unmarried daughters who were 6, 10 and 12 years old out of fear that they would follow their elder sister.

Ahmed told police that his eldest daughter tarnished the family’s honour by having married on her own choice.

For human rights groups, violence against women is a growing concern in the male-dominated Pakistani society, where females are killed by their male relatives for disgracing their family’s honour by marrying of her own choice rather than accept an arranged mating.

Daughters and sisters are also given in marriage to rivals for settlement of disputes.

Even though President General Pervez Musharraf publicly declared ”honour killing” a crime, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says more than 750 such murders occurred within last 18 months.

Man butchers four daughters

December 25, 2005

MULTAN: A man allegedly killed his four daughters in a village some 160 kilometres east of Multan on Saturday after the eldest daughter married a man of her choice.

Police said labourer Nazeer Ahmed slit the throats of his daughters Muqaddas Bibi, 25; Bano Bibi, 12; Sumera, 8 and Humera, 6, while they were asleep at his home in Chak 187 EB, Burewala, and then surrendered to the police.

“Nazeer Ahmed was afraid of his daughters since one of them had a love marriage against his wishes. He brought his elder daughter back from her in-laws, and early in the morning when all were sleeping he cut the throats of all four,” DPO Vehari Mukhtar Iqbal Tikka said.

Ahmed told police his eldest daughter Muqadas had married a man of her choice against his wishes and her act had tarnished the family’s honour so he plotted to kill her and his other daughters.

A Pakistani Pater Familias

December 25, 2005

Combining fragmentary news reports, here is what I can piece together of an appalling story coming out Pakistan concerning Nazeer Ahmed (also spelled Nazir Ahmad), a 40-year-old laborer in a village called Gago Mandi, near Burewala in the east of the country.

Nazeer Ahmed was upset that his stepdaughter (the daughter of his wife and his deceased brother), Muqadas Bibi, 25, had married a man against his wishes a few weeks ago. But this week he said he had forgiven her and invited her home from her in-laws. A senior police officer, Mukhtar Iqbal Tikka, explains: "They had dinner and early in the morning when all were sleeping he cut the throats of all four." His wife, Rehmat Bibi, witnessed the massacre as she cradled their 3-month-old son. Associated Press picks up the story:

Bibi recounted how she was woken by a shriek as Ahmed put his hand to the mouth of his stepdaughter Muqadas and cut her throat with a machete. Bibi looked helplessly on from the corner of the room as he then killed the three girls - Bano, 8, Sumaira, 7, and Humaira, 4 - pausing between the slayings to brandish the bloodstained knife at his wife, warning her not to intervene or raise alarm. "I was shivering with fear. I did not know how to save my daughters," Bibi, sobbing, told AP by phone from the village. "I begged my husband to spare my daughters but he said, ‘If you make a noise, I will kill you.""

She added, plaintively: "The whole night the bodies of my daughters lay in front of me."

The foul deed done, Ahmed went to a police station and admitted the murders. "I told the police that I am an honorable father and I slaughtered my dishonored daughter and the three other girls. I wish that I get a chance to eliminate the boy she ran away with and set his home on fire."

Comments: (1) What makes this incident so extraordinary is the apparent lack of connection to the Islamic notion of `ird, or sexual purity; these were not what are known as honor killings. From what one can tell, the stepdaughter did not elope, much less did she engage in non-marital sex, but she properly married. Her stepfather's problem had only to do with her having married someone other than his choice. He so deeply despaired of this that he became "afraid of his daughters" and chose to murder them rather than risk others of them following her lead.

(2) Ahmed's distorted priorities obviously are his own and not those of the society around him; but they also reflect the absolute control that the traditional Muslim pater familias expects to wield over his family. (For a fictional Egyptian portrayal of this control, see my analysis of Naguib Mahfouz's Bayn al-Qasrayn at "Egyptian Family Life in 1919.") (December 25, 2005, with factual additions from subsequent days)

Dec. 28, 2005 update: Interviewed by the Associated Press,

Ahmed showed no contrition. Appearing disheveled but composed, he said he killed Muqadas because she had committed adultery, and his daughters because he didn't want them to do the same when they grew up. He said he bought a butcher's knife and a machete after midday prayers on Friday and hid them in the house where he carried out the killings. "I thought the younger girls would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated," he said, his hands cuffed, his face unshaven. "We are poor people and we have nothing else to protect but our honor."

Ahmed also contends that Muqadas had committed adultery but the police know neither his identity nor his whereabouts and the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reports that local people say Muqadas fled her husband because he abused her and forced her to work in a brick-making factory.

Jan. 3, 2006 update: The Muslim Public Affairs Council weighed in on the Nazeer Ahmed case but can't figure out what it thinks of it. In one place, MPAC declares it "an aberration, reflecting the actions of a deranged, mentally unstable individual." But then it admits that "The general devaluation of female children, along with the culturally acceptable notion that women bear the burden of honor for their entire family, creates an environment where such a heinous act could occur." Precisely.

Daniel Pipes' Weblog

Muslim man in Pakistan justifies slitting throats of four daughters to protect the family honor

January 1, 2006

Pakistani Man Calmly Describes How He Killed His Four Daughters to the Protect Family Honor

By KHALID TANVEER

The Associated Press

MULTAN, Pakistan - Nazir Ahmed appears calm and unrepentant as he recounts how he slit the throats of his three young daughters and their 25-year old stepsister to salvage his family's "honor" a crime that shocked Pakistan.

The 40-year old laborer, speaking to The Associated Press in police detention as he was being shifted to prison, confessed to just one regret that he didn't murder the stepsister's alleged lover too.

Hundreds of girls and women are murdered by male relatives each year in this conservative Islamic nation, and rights groups said Wednesday such "honor killings" will only stop when authorities get serious about punishing perpetrators.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that in more than half of such cases that make it to court, most end with cash settlements paid by relatives to the victims' families, although under a law passed last year, the minimum penalty is 10 years, the maximum death by hanging.

Ahmed's killing spree witnessed by his wife Rehmat Bibi as she cradled their 3 month-old baby son happened Friday night at their home in the cotton-growing village of Gago Mandi in eastern Punjab province.

It is the latest of more than 260 such honor killings documented by the rights commission, mostly from media reports, during the first 11 months of 2005.

"I was shivering with fear. I did not know how to save my daughters," Bibi, sobbing, told AP by phone from the village. "I begged my husband to spare my daughters but he said, 'If you make a noise, I will kill you.'"

"The whole night the bodies of my daughters lay in front of me," she said.

The next morning, Ahmed was arrested.

Speaking to AP in the back of police pickup truck late Tuesday as he was shifted to a prison in the city of Multan, Ahmed showed no contrition. Appearing disheveled but composed, he said he killed Muqadas because she had committed adultery, and his daughters because he didn't want them to do the same when they grew up.

He said he bought a butcher's knife and a machete after midday prayers on Friday and hid them in the house where he carried out the killings.

"I thought the younger girls would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated," he said, his hands cuffed, his face unshaven. "We are poor people and we have nothing else to protect but our honor."

Despite Ahmed's contention that Muqadas had committed adultery a claim made by her husband the rights commission reported that according to local people, Muqadas had fled her husband because he had abused her and forced her to work in a brick-making factory.

Police have said they do not know the identity or whereabouts of Muqadas' alleged lover.

Muqadas was Bibi's daughter by her first marriage to Ahmed's brother, who died 14 years ago. Ahmed married his brother's widow, as is customary under Islamic tradition.

Activists accuse President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a self-styled moderate Muslim, of reluctance to reform outdated Islamized laws that make it difficult to secure convictions in rape, acid attacks and other cases of violence against women. They say police are often reluctant to prosecute, regarding such crimes as family disputes.

Statistics on honor killings are confused and imprecise, but figures from the rights commission's Web site and its officials show a marked reduction in cases this year: 267 in the first 11 months of 2005, compared with 579 during all of 2004. The Ministry of Women's Development said it had no reliable figures.

Ijaz Elahi, the ministry's joint secretary, said the violence was decreasing and that increasing numbers of victims were reporting incidents to police or the media. Laws, including one passed last year to beef up penalties for honor killings, had been toughened, she said.

Police in Multan said they would complete their investigation into Ahmed's case in the next two weeks and that he faces the death sentence if he is convicted for the killings and terrorizing his neighborhood.

Ahmed, who did not resist arrest, was unrepentant.

"I told the police that I am an honorable father and I slaughtered my dishonored daughter and the three other girls," he said. "I wish that I get a chance to eliminate the boy she ran away with and set his home on fire."