Pakistan police arrest 2 men accused of 'honor killings' of nieces
signonsandiego.com
ASSOCIATED PRESS
4:54 p.m. February 24, 2007
KARACHI, Pakistan – Police arrested two men in a remote southern village and accused them of hacking two young women to death for allegedly having sex outside marriage, officials said Saturday.
The suspects, who are uncles of the women, were caught after authorities were tipped off by the girls' parents about the slayings in southern Sindh province, said Ajmal Magsi, an area police chief.
The two women, aged 18 and 20, were first cousins and unmarried, Magsi said.
He said they were allegedly snatched from their home about 150 miles south of Karachi, the provincial capital, and taken to a field where they were hacked to death. Police were looking for two other villagers suspected of involvement.
Magsi said it was an “honor killing,” an ancient custom in which those accused of committing adultery or violating other sexual mores are killed by relatives. Most of the victims are women.
He said the parents of the women had denied they were involved in sexual relationships, but police were still investigating.
Many men in Pakistan's deeply conservative rural and tribal areas consider it an insult to their family's honor if female relatives have an affair outside of wedlock or even if they marry without their consent. They consider such executions necessary to restore the family's honor.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, citing government figures, said in a report last year that about 1,000 women die annually in honor killings.
Domestic and international human right groups say most attackers escape punishment because of legal loopholes. |
