Two sisters shot dead in Pakistan ‘honour’ killings
Activists protest against ‘honour
killings’ in Islamabad, Pakistan. Police
are hunting for a man who is believed
to have shot dead his two sisters
because he didn’t approve of their
lifestyles. Photo: EPA/T. MUGHAL
A man killed his two sisters on the eve
of their weddings in Pakistan’s central
Punjab province, police said Saturday,
in the latest case of so-called “honour”
killings in the country.
Kosar and Gulzar Bibi, aged 22 and
28, were shot dead by 35-year-old
brother Nasir Hussain on Friday as
they prepared to marry men they had
chosen themselves, senior police
officer Mehar Riaz told AFP.
Hussain objected to the love matches
and had wanted the women to marry
someone within the extended family,
he added.
“The brother shot dead both the sisters
yesterday and fled the site,” the officer
said, adding that a search was
underway.
“It is a simple case of killing for
honour,” he said.
Father of the family Atta Mohammad
told reporters that Hussain had
“destroyed everything”.
“He ruined my family, he destroyed
us, he destroyed everything”
Mohammad said.
The murders came days after social
media starlet Qandeel Baloch was
strangled to death by her brother who
said he was “not embarrassed” to have
killed her, reigniting calls for action
against the crime.
Hundreds of women are murdered by
relatives in the conservative Muslim
nation each year on the pretext of
defending what is seen as family
honour.
Pakistan’s law minister this month
announced that bills aimed at tackling
“honour killings” and boosting rape
convictions would soon be voted on by
parliament, after mounting pressure
to tackle a pattern of crime that claims
around 1,000 lives a year.
The perpetrators of so-called honour
killings — in which the victim,
normally a woman, is killed by a
relative — often walk free because
they can seek forgiveness for the
crime from another family member.
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