'They asked about my final wish...' Shahzadi Khan's last call to her parents before execution in UAE

Kanpur: In a heartbreaking turn of events, the Additional Solicitor General (ASG), appearing for the Centre, informed the court that Shahzadi Khan, the woman from Uttar Pradesh, had been executed on February 15. The ASG also stated that the authorities are extending all possible assistance to her family and her cremation is scheduled for March 5.

UP's Shahzadi Khan, on death row for killing a child, executed in UAE: MEA tells Delhi HC

The phone rang in a modest home in Goyera Mughli village, located in Banda, Uttar Pradesh's Bundelkhand region. It was February 15. A voice, familiar yet heavy with finality, shattered the quiet.

"This is my last call," said 33-year-old Shahzadi Khan.

Her family fell into stunned silence. Her brother, Shamsher, tightened his grip on the phone. "They asked me about my final wish," she continued. "I requested to speak to Ammi and Abbu."

In the background, her mother gasped, reaching out for a daughter she could neither save nor hold—one facing execution in Abu Dhabi after being convicted of murdering a four-month-old child. She was thousands of miles away, yet unbearably close to being lost forever.

Then, silence. Shahzadi was gone.

"We never heard from her again," Shamsher said on Monday. Desperate for answers, they searched tirelessly, pleading for information, only to be met with bureaucratic roadblocks and silence.

"We filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court, where we were informed on Monday about her execution," he added.

Shahzadi was executed on February 15—the same day she made her final call. Yet, no one knew the details. How it happened, where her remains were—those questions remained unanswered. All they knew was that it was over.

"Her last rites will take place on March 5," additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma informed the court.

She had left India with hopes of transformation. "Shahzadi had burn scars on her face from childhood," her brother Shamsher recalled. Those scars had always made her self-conscious. "She wanted them removed," he said.

When a man named Uzair from Agra contacted her through social media, offering assistance for plastic surgery in the UAE, she saw a chance to change her life.

In December 2021, she arrived in Abu Dhabi on a legal visa. However, instead of the promised surgery, Uzair sent her to stay at the home of his relative, Faiz. There, she was forced to work as a domestic help—no treatment, no transformation, just labor and isolation in an unfamiliar land.

In August 2022, Faiz’s wife gave birth to a baby boy, and Shahzadi was tasked with caring for the child. Four months later, on December 7, the infant received routine vaccinations. By nightfall, he had passed away.

Overcome with grief, Faiz’s sorrow turned to rage, and Shahzadi was accused of killing the child. She was arrested by Abu Dhabi police on February 10, 2023, and sentenced to death on July 31. Until her execution, she remained imprisoned in Al Wathba jail.