Burqa: Wedding revelry turned into mourning

The bride, Hazra, tried to intervene but she was kicked and the room was shut and bolted from outside. Shehnaz was then beheaded, as they were to learn later. There were some 50 men in the house but they had all been locked in.

On raising alarm, people from the nearby house — that of BSF Sub-Inspector Mohammad Sadiq — came and told them that militants had also killed Sadiq’s daughter Nureen.

Shehnaz’s body was found in the bushes. And even as they were taking her body home, they heard screams from another house. Another woman, Tahira, had been beheaded. Shehnaz, who was married in a nearby village, had come home to Hasiyot only a few days ago.

A pal of gloom descended over the village and the function abruptly cancelled. Instead of preparing to receive the baraat, the entire village got down to conduct the last rites of the three women.

Villagers are still too shocked to talk about the killings. ‘‘Perhaps Nureen was destined to meet such a violent end,’’ said her uncle Master Mohammad Latif Mirza. On militants’ burqa diktat, another villager said: ‘‘Who should we observe purdah for? We are all related to each other here.’’