Young couple killed in the name of 'honour' in Pakistan's Punjab province

PTI Updated: November 02, 2023 18:31 IST

Lahore, Nov 2 (PTI) A young couple was shot dead in the name of "honour" in Punjab province of Pakistan, police said on Thursday, days after a top court warned the girl's relatives not to harass them.
     Adil Afzal and Zubair Afzal, the brothers of Ramsha, 20, along with two accomplices barged into 23-year-old Nasir Gill's house on Wednesday in Khanewal district, some 400 kilometres from Lahore, and shot them dead, a police official said.
     Gill and Ramsha, who stayed in the same locality, secretly held a court marriage after the boy sent a marriage proposal to the girl's parents, which they declined, police official Shafique Ahmad said.
     Ramsha had gone to her parent's house after the marriage, assuring Gill that she would persuade her parents to accept him as their son-in-law, Ahmad said.
     Gill however moved the Lahore High Court for the safe recovery of his wife following his failure to establish contact with Ramsha as her parents had detained her in the house after knowing of her secret marriage.
     The judge ordered Ramsha to go with her husband and warned her parents of harassing the couple after she told the court that she married Gill with her free will and wanted to live with him.
     “On Wednesday, the girl’s brothers, along with two accomplices barged into Gill's house and killed the couple," the police official said.
     A case has been registered against the suspects while no arrest has been made yet, he said.
     Many people, especially women, are killed in Pakistan every year in the name of "honour".
     According to human rights activists, around 1,000 women are killed in the name of "honour" every year in Pakistan.
     The victims of honour killings are widely perceived to have brought shame and dishonour to their families either by marrying against their will or having an affair.
     Most often the family members are behind such honour killings.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)