'God Will Protect Me'

Good luck with that, Chaudhry.

A Muslim father accused of murdering his daughter in a so-called "honor killing" told cops God would look out for him, as he confessed to the grisly strangulation, authorities said yesterday.

"God will protect me. God is watching," Pakistani immigrant Chaudhry Rashid allegedly confessed to cops. "I strangled my daughter."

At a preliminary hearing yesterday, Detective Mike Christian told a judge Rashid copped to killing his daughter on July 6 with a bungee cord because she had filed divorce papers and was having an extramarital affair.

Christian said Rashid was found sitting in his driveway smoking a cigarette when cops arrested him.

Rashid, 56, waddled into a Georgia courtroom yesterday in shackles to fight murder charges in the death of his only daughter, Sandeela Kanwal, 25, at his home in Jonesboro, an Atlanta suburb.

Kanwal, who worked at a Wal-Mart, wanted to escape her loveless six-year marriage to a Chicago man, Majid Latif, cops said.

Rashid went into a murderous rage after apparently growing tired of numerous arguments with his daughter, concerned that their clashing cultural values would reflect poorly on him and his family, said the detective.

Rashid listened intently to the court proceeding as a court-appointed interpreter translated the grim details of his daughter's murder into his native Urdu.

Defense attorney Alan Begner asked the judge to throw out the case because of a lack of evidence, but he was turned down.

He also downplayed the notion of "honor killing."

"I have no comment about an honor killing or whether it's true or relevant at all," said Begner. "It does a disservice to the man, his family and his children."

Lck of evidence? He confessed, moron.