Abeera, a student of Punjab University with a dream to become famous model was found dead in a travelling bag at a bus station in Johar Town Lahore on January 13, 2015. After her body was identified by her brother, the case was opened and investigation started. Post-mortem confirmed that she was raped before being murdered. It also confirmed that she died due to strangulation and her body was kept in a freezer for a few hours before being dumped.
Abeera belonged to Sialkot and had shifted to Lahore to study. Initially, she lived with her maternal uncle but later she moved to a girl’s hostel on Wehdat Road. Abeera Iqbal -who went by the alias Areeba -had been modelling for a couple of years now and hoped to be the leading model in the industry. Her determination to achieve her goal led her to make-up artist Uzma Rao alias Tooba.
A CCTV footage showed Tooba dropping off the travelling bag at the bus station in Johar Town. The rickshaw driver who drove her confirmed that Tooba had indeed traveled in his rickshaw from her apartment to the bus stop and back.
Tooba’s house was immediately raided and she was taken in custody. After days of interrogation and making-up false stories which involved her blaming another friend of hers; Farooq (a private banker) for the murder, Tooba finally confessed to the murder.
Tooba’s statements confirm that she wanted to murder her ex-husband, Baber Butt and had asked for Abeera’s help, which she refused. The refusal angered Tooba who then killed Abeera.
“I added cyanide to yogurt which was provided by Zeeshan. Areeba was called to the house in Model Town and given the poisonous smoothie drink.”, said Tooba and also confessed to killing a TV cameraman, Yousuf Khoker a few months ago as well.
Baber and Tooba were married seven years ago and divorced two years ago. Tooba has claimed that Baber and Yousuf Khoker were responsible for the death of their two-month-old daughter. Tooba claimed that Butt had refused the treatment of their two-month-old who had fallen ill which lead to her death. She further claimed that Butt had asked her to accompany him to a party a day after their daughter passed away.
Must Read
