Lahore: Nasir Hussain, 35, a resident of Pakistan’s Punjab Province, has been arrested for the “honour killing” of his two sisters, Kosar (22) and Gulzar Bibi (28), because they married men of their choice – for love.
Hussain wanted his sisters to marry someone within their extended family.
The murders were committed on July 29, days after a British woman of Pakistani origin was allegedly killed by her father and former husband for marrying her second husband against her parents’ wishes, reports Breitbart News, an American news website.
“The brother fled the scene after executing murder. It is a simple case of killing for honour,” said a police officer quoted by the Daily Times of Pakistan.
“He ruined my family, he destroyed us, he destroyed everything,” said Atta Mohammad, the father of the killer and the victims.
The Daily Times, which reviewed the current state of the honour-killing crisis in Pakistan, concluded – hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives across the country every year on the pretext of defending what is seen as family honour.
Pakistan’s Law Minister Zahid Hmaid has reportedly also announced that a bill aimed at tackling honour killings would soon be voted on by Parliament, because of the mounting pressure to tackle the crime that claims around 1,000 lives every year.
As per media reports, in another incident, a social media star was strangled by her brother after exposing an Islamic cleric’s violations of Sharia law, including sexual advances towards her.
The British woman mentioned, Samia Shahid, was visiting her estranged parents in Pakistan when she was strangled in what her husband alleges was an honour killing.
The original post-mortem somehow missed the “nail scratches, bulging eyes, crushed larynx, and broken neck bones” found by a later investigation, allowing the family to claim the 28-year-old woman died of “natural causes.” (ANI)