The former husband of Wajiha Swathi, a United States citizen of Pakistani origin, has confessed to killing her upon her arrival in the country earlier this year. The Pickerington, Ohio,-based Pakistani American was kidnapped from Rawalpindi on October 16.
The case of abduction of Wajiha was registered at Morgah Police Station in Rawalpindi on the complaint of her son, Abdullah Mehdi Ali. Wajiha Swathi’s ex-husband Rizwan Habib was named in the case. Police had subsequently arrested Rizwan, who was remanded to police custody by a Rawalpindi court for investigation.
Express Tribune, a leading Pakistani daily, reported that the suspect had buried the body of his ex-wife after killing her in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan district.
Police says Wajiha Swathi’s cell phone went off immediately after disappearance.
The police official said they also tried to trace the number provided by the attorney of the plaintiff. However, it was later found that she never used that number in Pakistan.
According to the information provided by the victim’s family, Rizwan and Wajiha had separated but the accused claimed that he had not divorced his wife.
The police said that they did not arrest the accused for two months because he fully cooperated with the investigation team and came to the police station whenever called for questioning. The police said that the woman had come to Pakistan with her nephew Ayan Khan via Britain.
According to the police, there was also a property dispute between Rizwan and Wajiha, which has also been made part of the investigation.
The US embassy officials met with Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CCPO) Sajid Kayani and Senior Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Syed Ghazanfar Abbas last week to discuss the case. The police officials shared with the embassy officials the progress made so far in the investigation.
Abdullah Mehdi Ali, resident of Hayatabad Peshawar, stated in the FIR that his mother arrived in Islamabad on Oct 16 from London with his cousin.
Their scheduled return flight was on Oct 22 from Islamabad that she never boarded, he said, adding that his mother and her two minor children and he himself had been residing in the US.
She left two of his minor siblings with their aunt as she was to travel to Pakistan for settlement of property and other issues with the suspect.
The suspect took her and his cousin with him to his house in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) where they stayed, he said, adding that, however, when his cousin woke up in the morning, both Wajiha and the suspect were missing.
He claimed that after he created a scene, the servants tried to lock him up in a room, but he managed to escape from the house and later left the country using an emergency passport since his original documents were with his mother.