The unnamed suspect had believed that his wife, who was a staff nurse at Polyclinic Hospital in the G-6 neighbourhood of Islamabad, was in a relationship with her co-worker, a technician who also worked at the care centre.
The man began his killing spree on Tuesday by first shooting dead his father-in-law Aziz-ur-Rehman and brother-in-law Shoaib Aziz with a 30-bore pistol at their house.
He then went to his wife's workplace where he shot her dead. From there, he fled the scene until he spotted his wife's alleged lover and fatally shot him, too.
The man continued to flee, until a neighbour saw the suspect and shot him in the leg to stop him from escaping. The man was apprehended and taken to the hospital, where he confessed to the murders. He told police that he was a 'respectable' man but had killed his wife because she had been in a relationship with the technician for the past 15 years.
The suspect told police that he was afraid his daughters would be taken away from him if he tried to divorce his wife.
Station house officer (SHO) of Aabpara police station Saleem Raza confirmed that the murders were due to a family dispute and said that the suspect would remain in police custody at the hospital until he recovered from his gunshot wounds.
The murder is just one of the nearly 1,000 honour killings which occur in Pakistan each year, according to Human Rights Watch. Between July to December 2021, police in Punjab reported 90 women had been killed in the name of ‘honour’.