Woman shot in murder plot by ex – court told

Neelam Amjid was lured to the would-be murder scene near to her home in Lahore, Pakistan, by her former husband Amjid Ali, who told her someone was waiting there to give her money.

Instead she was shot by gunman Mir Hamza Haled, Leeds Crown Court was told this week.

Opening the trial on Monday, prosecutor Robert Smith QC said it was by chance rather than design that Miss Amjid survived.

Her new partner Waqas Saeed, who she wanted to marry, was shot in the spine while he was waited for her in the car. He has been left permanently paralysed from the waist down.

Mr Smith said Ali, of Aysgarth Road in Healey, had tried to get Miss Amjid, 32, to meet Haled in his home town of Rawalpindi, some 300 miles away from where she was living with Mr Saeed in Lahore.

When she refused, Ali arranged for her to meet Haled along the Shalimar Road in Laher to collect some money.

Mr Smith when she saw Haled she felt uneasy, and asked: “There’s nothing for me to be worried about is there?”

Haled replied there wasn’t, then revealed a semi-automatic pistol from his waistband and started shooting.

Mr Smith said Miss Amjid ran to Mr Saeed in the car crying for help, not realising he had been injured.

She was taken to hospital in a rickshaw.

The court heard the couple had lived together in Batley.

Mr Smith said Ali, 42, was motivated to kill his former wife because she had wronged him and brought shame to their families by starting divorce proceedings and by her association with another man.

He said: “He had eventually become deeply angry over issues concerning the custody of their four children and the division of family assets.”

Giving evidence from behind a screen on Wednesday, Miss Amjid became emotional when she described her husband’s violent behaviour in 13 years of marriage.

Mr Smith said: “Amjid Ali and Adnan Khalid, we say, are responsible for planning this shooting and agreeing between them and others what should be carried out in order that Miss Amjid should be killed.

“They planned to murder her.”

Amjid Ali is standing trial with his brother-in-law Adnan Khalid, 25, of Fairview Avenue in Staincliffe, who are both charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

They deny the charge.

Khalid’s younger brother Haled, who allegedly carried out the shooting, and Ali’s younger brother Qadafi Ashraf were also alleged to have been involved in the conspiracy, and are still at large, the court heard.

The trial continues.

See www.batleynews.co.uk for updates during the week.