Saif Rehman, a Scottish businessman and his American wife Uzma Naurin were gunned down in the street in a suspected honour killing while they were in Pakistan to attend a relative’s wedding.
Saif Rehman, 31, from Glasgow and Uzma Naurin, 30, from New York, were shot dead when their car was ambushed in the north-eastern city of Gujrat following a shopping trip.
The pair had been about to start a new life together in the U.S. after their trip to Pakistan for Saif Rehman’s brother’s wedding.
Saif Rehman and Uzma Naurin were accompanied by a driver, Saif Rehman’s sister and her two-year-old daughter, but the other passengers were unharmed.
A group of four gunmen stopped the car, opened fire and killed Saif Rehman before bundling Uzma Naurin into their vehicle and killing her at a spot nearby – then dumping her body by the roadside.
Pakistani police are probing claims that there had been tension between the couple’s in-laws over their marriage three years ago.
Saif Rehman and Uzma Naurin were married in Manchester but another, fuller ceremony involving both sides of the family took place in Glasgow in June, when it appeared that the differences might have been resolved.
Sources close to the dispute last night suggested Saif Rehman’s relatives had been happy with the marriage, but it had caused upset among some of his bride’s relatives.
Saif Ali, 30, of Cumbernauld, Dunbartonshire, who runs a mobile phone repair company, met Saif Rehman – who ran a similar firm called GSM Communications in Glasgow – three years ago.
Saif Ali said: “It was a long-distance relationship between Saif and Uzma but they made it work really well. Saif had just got a visa to go to the U.S., so they were on the brink of a new life together when this happened.
“I found out from Saif’s brother when the killings happened on November 1 and couldn’t believe it – I was shocked, angry and devastated because we were very close. Saif had been in Glasgow for six years and met Uzma at a friend’s wedding four or five years ago.”
Describing their murder, Saif Ali added: “They were going back home and basically, all of a sudden, their driver just stopped the car.
“Four people were in a different car which stopped in front of them. They pulled Saif, his sister, her daughter and his wife out of the car and, as soon as he was pulled out of the car, they shot him without saying anything.”
Saif Ali said that “no words were exchanged” between Saif Rehman and any of the people who shot him.
Saif Ali added: “Five minutes up the road they basically killed her (Uzma Naurin) as well. She wasn’t found until quite a bit of time later.
“Probably about three or four hours later, she was found, as they had basically put her in the shrubs somewhere, just on the side of the road.”
Saif Ali said Uzma Naurin worked in sales for Costa Coffee and was based in New Jersey.
Uzma Naurin’s father, a taxi driver in New York, had relatives in Gujrat and the driver of the car the couple were in when they were shot is said to have been employed by his Pakistani relatives.
British Foreign Office cannot become involved as Saif Rehman was a Pakistani national and his wife was a U.S. citizen.
