British woman killed in Pakistan; police suspect two men whose marriage proposals she rejected

Mayra Zulfiqar, a British woman of Pakistani origin, was found in a pool of blood in her flat in Lahore on Monday, days after she was allegedly threatened by two local men for refusing their marriage proposals.

Punjab Police say that Zulfiqar's initial postmortem report indicates that the law graduate from London had two bullet wounds, one on her neck and another on her arm. There were bruises on her right hand and left foot as well, as per a report in Pakistani newspaper Dawn. Her body was found by her uncle Mohammad Nazeer, after her father, who lives in west London, called him to say she had been killed.

Nazeer told the police that Zulfiqar had told him about a dispute with her two male friends who had threatened her with "dire consequences" after she refused their marriage proposals.

Sayyed Ali, an operations superintendent at Punjab Police, told the outlet that forensic experts have cordoned off the scene and also found her phone near her body. Her phone was being analysed while the CCTV footage was also being examined.

The chief investigating officer in the murder inquiry told the BBC that police teams have been targeting addresses in Islamabad and Lahore in search of the suspects, but no arrests have been made yet.

Meanwhile, legal documents obtained by the agency claim that Zulfiqar had sought help from the police just thirteen days before her murder, telling them that her life was in danger. She had also asked police for protection accusing a man of abducting her at gunpoint and attempting to sexually assault her.

She told the police that she managed to run away by alerting passersby but the man threatened her, saying, "you won't be able to escape, I will kill you."

According to a report by Indian news agency PTI, the 25-year-old had travelled to Lahore around three months ago from Belgium for a wedding, but had decided to stay and shared a rented house with a female friend.

Lahore's Police Assistant Superintendent Sidra Khan told the agency that Zulfiqar's friend Saad Ameer Butt, who reportedly wanted to marry her to obtain foreign nationality, appears to be the prime suspect in the case.

Meanwhile, a family source told Mail Online that Zulfiqar had decided to stay in Pakistan after it was put on the red list by Britain, as she didn't want to pay £1,750 to quarantine if she returned to the UK.

"She was angry that it was too much money for ten 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 insider said, adding that she had made three complaints to local police about Saad Ameer Butt.

"A local gangster who is closely connected to the police in Lahore took a shine to her but despite reporting him for harassment, they did nothing. The police are very corrupt over there and don't take crimes against women seriously," the source said.

The insider also claimed that contrary to the numerous reports, there were not two men pressuring Zulfiqar for marriage. She reportedly got engaged to a man from Islamabad soon after arriving in the country and was in a "steady relationship." They were planning to marry next year.

"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 said.