Daily Times

LAHORE: Another episode in the chain of so-called “honour” killings claimed two additional lives when a man killed his two sisters on the eve of their weddings in Punjab, according to police sources.

Kosar (22) and Gulzar Bibi (28) were shot dead by their brother, Nasir Hussain (35), on Friday while they were preparing to marry men of their own liking, said a senior police officer, Mehar Riaz. Hussain had objected to these love matches and had instead wanted the two 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, further adding that a search was currently underway. “It is a simple case of killing for honour,” he noted. The victims’ father, Atta Mohammad, told media sources that Hussain had “destroyed everything”. He added, “He ruined my family, he destroyed us, he destroyed everything”. The murders have occurred only days after social media starlet, Qandeel Baloch, was strangled to death by her brother who believed that he was “not embarrassed” to have committed the crime.

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 also announced this month that bills aimed at tackling “honour killings” and boosting rape convictions would soon be voted on by parliament, because of the mounting pressure to tackle a pattern of crime that claims around 1,000 lives a year. The perpetrators of these 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.