New Delhi: A day after the world celebrated International Women’s Day as a mark to honour and pledged to improve their status, a 38-year-old woman was allegedly stabbed to death in Tirunelveli on Friday for an “illicit relationship”.
Mumtaj who worked in a beedi shop was stabbed to death in full public view by a three-member gang in broad daylight at Melapalayam in Tirunelveli, about 150 km from Madurai.
Police said Mumtaj died on the spot and gang members escaped in a vehicle immediately.
A police official was quoted by news agency PTI as saying that a Melapalayam-based Islamic fundamentalist outfit had been issuing warnings to women against having "illicit relationships".
Police added that the youth who allegedly murdered Mumtaj were claimed to be its members.
Mumtaj had been living alone after her husband left her 10 years ago and she had been allegedly threatened by the members of the outfit earlier, they said.
The FIR could be registered only by night as nobody came forward to give a complaint till late in the evening, apparently out of fear, police said.
The incident created a flutter in the town and several people, including Muslims, condemned it.
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