2 bludgeon sister, her lover to death in 'honor killing'
By Khalid Tanveer
Associated Press
Feb. 1, 2007 07:52 AM
azcentral.com
MULTAN, Pakistan - Two brothers in Pakistan beat to death their sister and her lover with bricks for bringing shame upon the family with their out-of-wedlock affair, police said Thursday.
Ghulam Murtaza, the police chief in the Punjab province village where the killings occurred, said the brothers are under arrest on murder charges.
Ilahi Seen, 45, and her lover were attacked in her room early Monday, Murtaza said. He quoted one of the brothers as saying the couple was discovered in a "wrong situation."
"We hit them until they became cold," Murtaza quoted Maqbool Ahmed as saying.
Police found the bodies after villagers reported hearing screams. The victims had been hit repeatedly over the head with bricks, and the room was awash with blood, he said.
The woman lived with her brothers in the village of Donga Bonga, in eastern Punjab province.
"We know our homes have been ruined but we have done nothing wrong," Ahmed was quoted as saying. "We poor people only have our honor."
Many men in deeply conservative rural areas of Pakistan consider it an insult to family honor if female relatives have an affair outside of wedlock or even if they marry without their consent. Attacking or killing the women or their partners is viewed as a way to restore family 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. |
