Mississauga dad charged with murdering daughter

First-degree murder charges laid

 

Canwest News Service   Tuesday, June 17, 2008

 

CREDIT: Courtesy Ebonie Mitchell An image of Aqsa Parvez, 16, taken by a friend, before she was found dead in December of 2007. Her father, Muhammad Parvez, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in her death.

TORONTO - Muhammad Parvez, the father of a 16-year-old Mississauga, Ont., girl who was killed last year, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death.

Parvez, 57, appeared in court Tuesday on the upgraded charges. The Pakistan-native and taxicab driver was originally arrested and charged with second-degree murder after his daughter, Aqsa Parvez, 16, was found dead on Dec. 10, 2007.

Police said in a statement at the time they received an emergency call at 7:55 a.m. from "a man who indicated that he had just killed his daughter."

In the wake of the girl's death, some classmates said Aqsa Parvez's insistence on not wearing the hijab led to intense family squabbles.

But another friend told the National Post in December the traditional Islamic clothing was not a major factor and that other girls in the family did not wear the hijab.

Lubna Tahir, at whose house Aqsa was staying after leaving her own home in Mississauga, branded as "rumours" news stories that Aqsa's father allegedly killed her for not wearing the Muslim headscarf.

Tahir insisted the girl was religiously observant but mainly had wanted to be more independent.

"She was satisfied, she was relaxed that somehow her parents understood that this is what she wanted to do, and they didn't push her to come home," Tahir said.

Aqsa's brother, Waqas Parvez, 26, has also been charged with obstructing police in the matter.  That charge is still before the courts, a police statement said.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=861116bf-3585-4f57-84eb-1d44036a2f21                              © Canwest News Service 2008