Shahin Munir, 24, was let in on a terrible secret when she discovered that 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed, from Warrington, was the victim of an honour killing. Here she shares her remarkable story... Shafilea Ahmed was killed by her parents in September 2003, and her body was found dumped in the Lake District five months later. Her two sisters Alesha and Mevish witnessed the killing along with their brother, but terrified they might be next, they carried the terrible secret with them. The only person Mevish told was her best friend Shahin… "Mev used to tell me about the violence at home," Shahin tells Cosmopolitan. "But there was always something she couldn't bring herself to say. I told her that if she couldn't say it out loud she should write it down and give it to me instead. She was never really allowed out by herself but one day she texted me and told me she was going into town with her mum. She said they were going to H&M so I went there, and started looking through clothes, keeping my head down. I was looking through a rail when Mev and her mum walked past and as Mev walked past, she dropped a letter on the floor. I picked it up quickly and walked out of the shop as fast as I could." Shahin couldn't believe it when she got home and read Mev's letter describing Shafilea's murder. "I'd do anything to change that night," Mev had written. "I wish I never seen but I did and Alesha did but just sat there and watched. I even seen the suitcase they took her in. They knocked me over and smacked me coz I seen." Shahin (L) and Mev (R) Later in court, Mev said that what she'd written was purely fiction – "free-writing" that she had made up. But Shahin knew it was absolutely true, and from then on, she was in on the secret. "I met up with Mev in the park the next day," explains Shahin, who graduated with a degree in psychology last year. "She was completely terrified – watching every car that drove past thinking it might be her dad. I gave her the letter and said I want you to read it out loud to me. But she couldn't do it. She broke down completely. I couldn't tell anyone either because Mev's parents used to threaten her that she would be next if she told anyone. She was a victim, too. After that, Mev would talk about Shafilea – her nice memories of them together as well as everything they went through. She told me that Shafilea was treated the worst out of her sisters and brother – she was the most 'trouble'. Shafilea sometimes wasn't allowed to eat and other times they'd leave her outside in the rain. It was caused by things like her having a mobile phone and speaking to boys, wanting to wear makeup and heels. For her family, those were big problems. The thing that triggered the argument the night she was killed was that she went out in just a T-shirt without her coat." Shafilea Ahmed in happier times When Shafilea's parents Farzana and Ifthikar Ahmed were arrested on suspicion of murder and brought to trial in May 2012, Shahin knew she had to do something. Alesha had told police that her parents killed Shafilea but Mev refused to admit the truth. "Even though Mev had begged me not to, once the trial started I rang the police and told them I had evidence. Mev had asked for the letters back but I'd photocopied them and I also kept a diary. I was disappointed that Mev wouldn't speak out. As soon as they'd been charged, I said to Mev 'You're going to have to forget about your mum and dad. This trial is about your sister. You have to stand up for her because.......... www.naijarep.com/2017/02/true-life-story-my-best-friend-watched.html