Alleged 'honour killing' victims hanged from a tree in Mian Channu
Both the victims were later hanged to a tree.
HYDERABAD (Dunya News / AFP) – Two people including a woman was killed for honour in Mian Channu on Thursday.
According to details, the mother-of-three Khalida Bibi and her 21-year-old cousin Mohammad Mukhtar were killed by the woman’s father Riaz, brother Shehbaz and husband Javed.
Both the victims were later hanged to a tree.
Mukhtar had came to Khalida Bibi’s house to meet her on which her husband became furious and killed both of them with the help of the woman’s father and brother.
Police say they have arrested all the three murder accused. Local police official Allah Ditta says the three arrested relatives confessed to killing Bibi and Mukhtar for having an affair.
Ditta gave no further details.
More than 500 people -- almost all women -- die in Pakistan each year in such killings, usually carried out by members of the victim’s family meting out punishment for bringing "shame" on the community and violating traditional values.
On July 16, Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch was murdered by her younger brother in what police suspect was a so-called "honour killing".
In June, a 16-year-old girl Zeenat Bibi was murdered by her mother for marrying the man of her choice whereas in the same month 19-year-old Maria Sadaqat was tortured then burned alive for refusing a marriage proposal from a school principal’s son in Murree.
In April, a young woman was strangled and then her body set ablaze because she helped a friend elope in Abbottabad, another case that sparked revulsion.
Pakistan amended its criminal code in 2005 to prevent men who kill female relatives escaping punishment by pardoning themselves as an "heir" of the victim.
But it is left to a judge’s discretion to decide whether to impose a prison sentence when other relatives of the victim forgive the killer -- a loophole which critics say remains exploited.
"A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" -- a film telling the story of a rare survivor of an attempted honour killing -- won the Academy Award for best documentary short in February.
Amid publicity for the film, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to eradicate the "evil" of honour killings but no fresh legislation has been tabled since then.
