Inside the lair of ‘honour killing’ uncle Mohammed Taroos Khan who murdered Somaiya Begum

The bloodied body of a young woman who rejected a forced marriage lay curled up in a dingy carpet at night in this filthy home of her deranged uncle.

Racks of tools line the wall in the cluttered and dingy lounge area of ​​Mohammed Taroos Khan’s shipping container residence in Bradford.

Enraged that his niece, Somaiya Begum, had rejected her father’s arranged marriage to her cousin in Pakistan at the age of 16, and enraged at her increasing Westernization, he mercilessly slaughtered the biomedical student four years later.

For her own safety, Somaiya, 20, lived with her grandmother and another uncle following a court-ordered forced marriage.

It was in her beloved grandmother’s supposed safe house that 52-year-old Khan found his niece – and inserted a four-inch metal spike into her back, piercing her lung.

The sharpened woodworking tool was found embedded in her decomposed body when police finally found it in a vacant lot, following a two-week search for the missing student.

Khan denied murder at Bradford Court Crown but was found guilty of the ‘traumatic’ attack and sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday.

Despite the lengthy prison sentence, Khan has insisted he will continue to pay his £240 rent for the cramped metal box he lived in, apparently assuming he will need the property again.

These interior photos — obtained by MailOnline and taken with the landlord’s permission — provide a chilling snapshot of Khan’s existence and his tragic niece’s brief resting place.

He had rented two storage containers from an industrial unit just a mile from the murder scene and one above where he lived.

A single bed is visible in the “portable” office-like container, which is about 9 feet wide and 30 feet long.

The landlord, who declined to give his name, said Khan was still paying £240 a month rent for his living space.

He said: ‘I got a call from Mr Khan in January and I told him I could get someone else but he said no. He said he will ask his lawyer to drop the rent.

“He started renting the storage containers for his tools, but one day he said he had to rent the top one to live in.”

Khan’s hopes of returning to one of the crime scenes contrasts sharply with his heroic brother Dawood, who testified against him in court.

Somaiya lived with her uncle Dawood and her grandmother after leaving her parents’ house under a forced marriage order two years ago.

She moved in with her after attempts by her own father to force her to marry a cousin “by threatening violence.”

But that safe haven was violated when Khan fatally attacked her there on June 25 last year.

Now neighbors of the property say the heartbroken Dawood can no longer bear going back there.

It is thought that Somaiya’s grandmother now lives alone and is occasionally visited by another son who does not live there.

Mahmood Hussain, who lives a few houses away, said: ‘He felt responsible for Somaiya. He hasn’t been home since it happened.

“He can’t take it anymore since it all happened. It’s a pity, because he’s the nicest man.’

Mr Hussain, 44, said the first thing he knew of Somaiya’s disappearance was when Dawood frantically knocked on his door and asked to check his CCTV footage as she was missing.

He had no idea that his brother had secretly used a set of keys he cut while he was sleeping and stuck an 11 cm nail from a tool in his workshop into Somaiya’s back.

Bradford Crown Court heard he probably strangled her, but an exact cause of death could not be determined due to the decomposition of her body, which was ‘dumped like rubbish’ in vacant lots.

He added: “No one deserves to die like this. He deserves life in prison.

‘It must be because of the arranged marriage, I see no other reason.

“No one deserves to die like this. He deserves life in prison. You don’t kill anyone for that. It’s terrible.’

No victim impact statements were read in court by family members, but Dawood Khan said in evidence: ‘She was a blessing to have in the house and I couldn’t fault her. She was the light of my life.’

Another neighbor, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he came across as a “sincere and nice man.”

She said, “The uncle left the house right away, but his mother is still there.

“I heard he’s going through a nervous breakdown, he’s had a really hard time.

‘He was really sincere. He was very sweet and thought of her a lot. I think he thought she was his responsibility.

“The family was very quiet and never spoke much, but he always seemed nice.

“It’s terrible to know what happened to her. You would never see her outside.

‘She had the freedom, but she just went to university and worked. She was very focused on studying, which is such a shame.’

A third neighbour, using only his name Abdul, said he had known Khan since they were young men, but Khan had “suddenly changed” some 25 years ago.

He said, ‘He was okay when he was younger, we never had a problem and there were never any problems. But suddenly he just changed.

“I don’t know what was wrong with him, but he wasn’t the same.

“He was very quiet, but you never thought he would do something like that.

‘Since the murder, the grandmother never answers the door. Some relatives come to see her and sometimes take her shopping, but they call when they arrive and she answers the door.

“I haven’t seen Dawood since it happened. He just left the house and hasn’t come back.’

Mohammad Taroos Khan used to live in the house, in Binnie Street, Bradford, before getting a restraining order after being convicted of assault against his own daughter.

He held a knife to her throat and threatened to “cut her into pieces,” according to his murder trial.