02-08-2025
They fell in love, then they were murdered in the name of ‘honour'
When he went to work as a servant for a local landlord family, Sajid Masih would have a spring in his step.
The hours were long and the duties mundane. But every time he entered the Asif family home in a village in Pakistan's Punjab province, he had a chance to exchange a glance – perhaps a few words – with Sanah, the daughter of his employer with whom he had fallen in love.
Over time, an unlikely relationship blossomed. Sanah was rich, privileged and part of a powerful landlord caste. Not only was Sajid a servant of the family – something that would immediately rule him out as a potential match – he was Christian. The odds appeared insurmountable.
But on July 15, the young couple eloped. They fled the Asif home not far from the city of Gujrunwalla and headed for the vast southern megalopolis of Karachi, where they hoped to blend in among the 20 million other residents who surge through its streets.
One week later, they married. In order to secure the approval of a local court, Sajid had converted to Islam, a legal requirement to wed a Muslim woman.
Two bodies found
For a time, they were happy. Husband and wife let loose. The sweltering summer heat cooled at night, and they could sit side by side on a bench to watch the world go by.
But on July 28, two unidentifiable bodies were found by labourers in the China port area. They belonged to Sanah and Sajid, police later confirmed.
Both had been shot with a single bullet to the head. And so detectives began the familiar task: launching an investigation into one of the hundreds of so-called 'honour killings' that take place each year in Pakistan.
'Sajid was a kind and hard-working son,' his mother, Arifa Bibi, told The Telegraph from an undisclosed location.
'He supported not just us – his elderly parents – but also his four younger siblings.'
'I don't know exactly what happened. But my son Sajid eloped with Sanah, the daughter of one of those landlords [we worked for]. Since then, we've been in hiding. Two days ago, we learned that Sajid and Sanah were killed in Karachi.'
In Gujrunwala, Sanah's family filed a police report claiming their daughter had been kidnapped and raped.
But Mohammad Riaz, a senior police officer in Karachi, said the main line of investigation was into Waqas Ali, Sanah's brother, who is the primary suspect in an alleged honour killing.
