Kriti Mehrotra
When Khatera Sadiqi and Feroz Mangal were found dead inside their car in the parking lot of an Ottawa shopping complex on September 19, 2006, shock waves went through the entire Afghan community. After all, as carefully chronicled in Investigation Discovery’s ‘Forbidden: Dying for Love: Bound by Honor,’ they were just a young couple planning to start a life together when they were heinously killed. It thankfully took authorities almost no time to identify the assailant, thanks to surveillance footage as well as witness statements, yet it wasn’t until around 3 years later that justice was finally served.
Khatera Sadiqi and Feroz Mangal Were Head Over Heels in Love
Khatera Sadiqi was born in Canada to Afghan immigrants Nasima Fayaz and Ghulam Sadiqi as the youngest of their two children. According to accounts featured in the show, their long-distance truck driver father allegedly maintained a strict, traditional household. Their mother claimed on the show that it led to a strained environment at home, resulting in her reportedly filing for divorce in 2000. However, the kids remained with their father for stability. According to the show, Khatera wasn’t allowed to attend college and was expected to take care of all domestic chores herself, yet she still managed to be a little independent.
The bubbly, kind young girl landed a part-time job at a downtown Ottawa clothing store. Her work became her solace in times of need and the place she felt she could be herself. It was then that the then-19-year-old met Feroz Mangal at a community event. It soon led to a romance, familial contentions, and an engagement despite their disapproval. While 23-year-old Feroz was born and brought up in Afghanistan alongside at least 3 brothers, the family had relocated to Canada in the early 2000s for a better future and more opportunities.
In fact, the young man was attending college by 2006, with dreams of studying law, joining the police department, and then going into the detective program to represent and serve his community. The show suggests that Khatera shared a tight bond with her brother, Hasibullah “Hasib” Sadiqi, but their relationship fatally deteriorated over her engagement.” Furthermore, even though Feroz was caring, came from a good family, and loved Khatera, her father disapproved of him partly because the Mangals are Pashtuns while the Sadiqis are Tajiks.
Khatera Sadiqi and Feroz Mangal Were Shot at Multiple Times at Close Range
As per the aforementioned original, Ghulam’s disapproval led Khatera to become estranged from him, reconnect with her now Vancouver-based mother, and ultimately move in with the Mangals. She and Feroz even became engaged during this period and began planning their traditional wedding, unaware that the rug would be pulled out from under them on September 19, 2006. It was shortly after midnight when officials responded to calls of several gunshots outside Elmvale Acres Shopping Center, only to find the young couple brutally shot down inside their vehicle.
Khatera sadly died on impact from the bullets to her face/head at close range, but deputies found Feroz barely breathing and immediately rushed him to a nearby hospital for treatment. Unfortunately, the extent of his injuries from the gunshots was such that the medical professionals eventually had no option but to place him on life support. His family made the extremely difficult decision to let him go 10 days later, on September 29, knowing he would at least be back with his 20-year-old fiancée.
Khatera Sadiqi and Feroz Mangal’s Killer Was Once Quite Close to Her
As soon as authorities arrived at the scene, they believed the attack on the couple was personal, as their vehicle’s window was open, as if they were talking to someone outside. When they initially received calls of open fire from residents around the complex, they suspected gang violence, as it was common in the area. However, there were no signs of the same; footage from a surveillance camera in the parking lot captured the entire incident. Khatera’s brother, Hasibullah “Hasib” Sadiqi, was the one who killed her and Feroz, with the camera catching all 6 times he pulled the trigger before getting into his car and fleeing the scene. It came to light that the couple went out for dinner and a movie with him and some friends before offering to drive him back to where he had parked his car at the nearby shopping complex.
There, they got into an argument over the 20-year-old’s decision not to invite her father to their wedding, and when her fiancé sided with her, her brother was infuriated. That’s when Hasib got out of the car, walked to his own vehicle, grabbed a .44 caliber handgun from under a seat, and began walking back to Khatera and Feroz, who rolled down the window. The couple thought he was coming to continue talking, but instead, he opened fire in what has since been deemed an “honor killing” as he believed they should have shown greater respect to Ghulam. Law enforcement determined that Hasibullah acted entirely on his own, inspired by his personal beliefs about family honor. They stated that there was no indication that any other family members were involved.
Hasib Sadiqi is Currently Incarcerated in a Provincial Correctional Facility
Although investigators positively identified Hasib Sadiqi as the trigger man within hours of the shooting, they were unable to immediately arrest him for the crime as he was nowhere to be found. It was three days later when they got a call from a criminal defense attorney, following which he turned himself in and confessed without showing much emotion, per the aforementioned episode. He was reportedly initially charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, but the latter was upgraded to first-degree murder after Feroz was taken off life support.
Hasib stood trial for the charges against him in May 2009, during which his team argued that he “lost control” in the moments leading up to the fatal shooting, insisting there was no planning on his part. However, the prosecutors contended the crime was deliberate – an “honor killing” to restore respect for the Sadiqis in the community through the spilling of Khatera and Feroz’s blood. In the end, the jury sided with the latter, resulting in the 23-year-old being found guilty as charged and later being sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. So, today, at the age of 40, Hasib remains incarcerated in an Ontario Provincial Correctional Facility, where he is expected to remain until at least he becomes eligible for parole in 2031.
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