A 24-year-old British law school graduate was reportedly shot dead in Pakistan by four men — two of whom had tried to pressure her into marriage.
The bullet-riddled body of Mayra Zulfiqar, a London resident of Pakistani origin, was found in a pool of blood in her rented apartment in the city of Lahore on Monday, Sky News reported.
She had been shot in the neck and arm, according to an initial post-mortem report cited by the English-language Dawn.
Zulfiqar had traveled to Pakistan to attend a wedding a couple of months ago and decided to remain in the country, according to the outlet.
The young legal eagle’s uncle, Mohammad Nazeer, found her body after receiving a call from her father, who lives in West London, to say she had been killed, the BBC reported.
Nazeer said his niece had told him she had quarreled with two male friends, who had threatened her with “dire consequences” after she refused their marriage proposals.
Punjab police official Sayyed Ali told Dawn that forensic experts had cordoned off the scene of the crime. Police have detained two men for questioning.
“We are also after two suspects and will share further details at a later stage,” he said, adding that Zulfiqar’s phone was found near her body, according to the BBC.
The victim’s family arrived from the UK to attend her funeral.
“Her father called me on Monday and asked me to come to his house,” Ziaur Rehman, a merchant in Feltham, West London, told Sky News.
“He was crying, I sensed there was something wrong, then I went there and the news was shocking. Her mother, she is really struggling now — she is not well at all,” he added.
The Daily Mail reported that the young woman decided to stay in Pakistan because she didn’t want to pay £1,750 — about $2,400 — to be quarantined in the UK after Pakistan was placed on the COVID-19 red list.
“She didn’t want to come back and pay all that money to quarantine in Britain so she decided to stay in Lahore, where she was living with her grandmother,” a family source told the outlet.
“She was angry that it was too much money for 10 days in a grotty hotel. Instead, she thought she’d have more fun in Lahore and was having a lovely time after making a new group of friends,” the source added.
Family sources in Pakistan refuted some of the reports — including from the BBC, which cited legal documents — and said Zulfiqar had gotten engaged to a man from Islamabad and planned to tie the knot next year.
Punjab police reported two men have been detained and are being questioned in connection to Mayra Zulfiqar’s murder. Facebook“She was engaged and in a steady relationship,” the source told the Daily Mail.
“It was one man who was harassing her, and we don’t know why. Perhaps it was because she’s from the UK and is a very beautiful girl. It might have been a status thing for him,” the source added.
In a statement, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who died in Pakistan and are urgently seeking more information from the local authorities.
“Our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time,” it added, according to the BBC.
