Mayra Zulfiqar murder: Victim sought protection from police after kidnap attempt

A young London woman killed in Pakistan after she had refused two marriage offers had appealed for help from police two weeks before her killing.

Mayra Zulfiqar had reportedly asked police in the city of Lahore for protection after accusing a man of abducting her at gunpoint.

The 26-year-old was found dead in her apartment earlier this week, and had been threatened by two men who both wanted to marry her, according to a legal case filed by her family.

Pakistani police have said they are seeking the two men and two other accomplices who are accused of breaking into Miss Zulfiqar's home and shooting and strangling her.

New legal documents have now disclosed that she went to police on April 20 saying a man had taken her at gunpoint and tried to sexually assault her, the BBC reported.

She said she managed to run away by alerting bystanders, but the man threatened her, saying "you won't be able to escape, I will kill you."

Miss Zulfiqar had arrived in Pakistan from London two months ago to attend a wedding with her family. She decided to stay on when they returned and had been staying in the defence housing authority district of Lahore.

Her uncle told police she had been threatened with “dire consequences” by two men after she refused their proposals and had asked him to intercede with the pair.

Police had checked CCTV in the area after her abduction, according to neighbours in the street where she was renting the upper section of a house.

A neighbour who declined to be named said that loud arguments could often be heard from the apartment and in one incident men brandishing knives had been seen threatening Miss Zulfiqar from the street.

Miss Zulfiqar's funeral was held in the city in eastern Pakistan earlier this week. The Foreign Office said she was a Belgian national who had been resident in the UK.