2 Pak sisters shot dead in ‘honour killing’

Lahore: Two young sisters were gunned down on Saturday by their brother in a case of ‘honour killing’, a day before their wedding in Pakistan’s Punjab province, police said.

Rasm-e-Hina function of Kosar and Gulzar, aged between 20 and 25, was underway on Friday evening when their brother Nasir Hussain opened fire on them, killing them on the spot and fled, station house officer Mehr Riaz stated.

He said a murder case has been registered against Hussain on the complaint of their father Atta Muhammad. The incident has taken place in Sargana village in Vehari district, 300 kilometres from Lahore.

The police officer further said there had been a clash among the family members over marrying off the girls outside the family’s caste. The sisters’ brothers were against marrying them off in Khan clan of Faisalabad.

The girls who belonged to Rajput clan developed linking for the men of Khan clan in a marriage ceremony. They later sent their marriage proposal which Muhammad accepted but the brothers were not happy, Riaz said.

He said police are conducting raids to arrest Hussain while they had taken his two brothers into custody for interrogation. The murders took place in south Punjab where two weeks ago social media star Qandeel Baloch was strangled to death by her brother for disgracing her family.

Last week a British Pakistani woman, Samia, 28, was also allegedly killed by her parents for marrying a man of her choice in Jehlum district of Punjab. Last year, nearly 1,100 women were killed in the name of honour in Pakistan.

PTI