Father of Londoner killed in Pakistan demands death penalty

The father of a London resident who was killed in Pakistan has complained of a lack of progress in the investigation as he called for his daughter’s killers to be punished.

Mayra Zulfiqar, 24, was found dead in a pool of blood with two bullet wounds on 3 May. Her body was found in a flat in Lahore, where she had moved two months earlier after travelling to Pakistan for a wedding.

Soon after Ms Zulfiqar’s death, it was revealed that the 24-year-old law graduate, who previously lived in southwest London, had repeatedly asked the police for protection after receiving death threats.

Ms Zulfiqar, a Belgian national, said she had been threatened by two men who both wanted to marry her.

In light of what he described as a lack of “headway” in the investigation, Muhammad Zulfiqar, appealed for help from both Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan.

“My dear daughter Malala, I appeal to you for God’s sake please raise your voice for my daughter. She was like your sister,” he told the Associated Press. “Your voice is heard. The only difference is that you have gone abroad after studying here and my daughter came to Pakistan to serve humanity.”

He spoke about how his daughter had wanted to work as a lawyer in Pakistan to give free legal assistance to poor people.

Mr Zulfiqar told the Associated Press that Ms Zulfiqar was his only daughter, adding: “I will continue raising my voice until I get justice and her murderers are publicly hanged.”

Following Ms Zulfiqar’s death, police arrested the two men who had proposed to her – but have not yet announced a major breakthrough.

The 24-year-old’s uncle, Lahore resident Mohammad Nazeer, said his niece had told him she had been involved in a dispute with two male friends after she had rejected their marriage proposals, and that they had threatened her with “dire consequences”.

Mohammad Amin, who is leading the investigation, said that the force was questioning two key suspects. “It is a complicated case, but we are on the right track and God willing those who are involved in this crime will not go unpunished,” he said.

However, Mr Zulfiqar, who travelled to Pakistan for the funeral, complained that of the slow progress in the police investigation, saying: “I have been made a shuttlecock between different departments of the police but still, there is no headway in the investigations.”

Ms Zulfiqar was a Belgian national living in London, according to the UK Foreign Office, which said it had referred her family to Belgian consular services.