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| Friday, 13 February 2004 |
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Pakistani kills sister, her husband for "honour" MULTAN, Pakistan, Thursday (Reuters) A Pakistani villager shot dead his sister and brother-in-law for marrying without family consent, police said the latest in an endless string of so-called "honour killings" in rural areas. The murders took place on Tuesday - the same day that President Pervez Musharraf vowed to deal sternly with perpetrators of honour killings, where men kill female relatives ostensibly to protect the family's reputation. Police said 21-year-old Sardaran Mai eloped with her lover, Sabir Hussain, about eight month ago and married him after her parents had tried to force her to wed someone else. Local police official Mir Ali said the couple returned to their village near the central town of Dera Ghazi Khan a few months later after Mai had made peace with her parents. But brother Mohammad Rafiq was still angry. "Rafiq broke into the house of his sister yesterday and opened fire, killing her and her husband," Ali said. Hundreds of women are killed every year in feudal rural Pakistan for offences deemed to have offended family honour, including adultery, marrying without the families' permission and failing to bring home an adequate dowry. In a separate incident in Punjab province, a man reportedly axed to death his 17-year-old sister and wounded another sister on Monday over suspicions they were having affairs. Police said they had arrested suspects in both cases. Rights activists say most "honour killings" go unpunished, mainly due to financial deals between the families involved. |
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