Gunmen shoot dead Gujranwala bride on walima day; suspects at large

GUJRANWALA: A bride was shot dead in Gulshan Colony in Gujranwala on the day of her wedding reception, in an attack Dawn reported was allegedly carried out by a jilted suitor.

Dawn reported that the woman was killed after her walima reception. ARY News, which obtained closed-circuit television footage of the attack, reported that the incident took place in Gulshan Colony on the day of the wedding reception.

According to the footage described by ARY News, two men on a motorcycle were waiting on the road. When the bride's car arrived, the suspects approached the vehicle and stopped it. One of them, identified in the footage as Sarfraz, opened the car door, prompting a woman inside to flee the vehicle. The suspect then opened fire at the bride, who was sitting in the car, killing her.

The driver also got out of the vehicle and lay down on the ground as the shooting unfolded. After firing at the bride, the suspects fled while firing gunshots, ARY News reported, adding that their faces were clearly visible in the CCTV footage.

The Punjab Crime Control Department has stepped up efforts to arrest the suspects, according to ARY News.

Dawn described the alleged attacker as a jilted suitor, indicating a rejected marriage proposal, but neither report set out the evidence behind that account.

Neither report named the bride, gave her age, or identified the woman who fled the car. No detailed statement from Gujranwala police on the case appeared in either account, and the reports did not say whether any suspect had been arrested.

The two reports also differ slightly on timing: Dawn said the killing took place after the walima reception, while ARY News placed it on the day of the reception itself.

The case is the latest in a series of killings of women in Punjab in which police have had to rely on video footage and witness accounts to identify attackers who flee the scene on motorcycles.