Brother shoots pregnant woman over ‘honour’ in Khairpur

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KHAIRPUR: A brother killed his eight months pregnant sister for contracting a marriage of her own will in Sindh’s Khairpur district on Friday evening, police officials said.

The victim, a mother of one, had willingly married a man from a caste different than hers in a court of Sukkur in August 2016 without her family’s approval.

Apparently angered by her actions, the 25-year-old woman’s brother opened fire on her while she was sleeping in their family home, located within the jurisdiction of Wada Machhoon police station in Khairpur.

The prime accused was arrested by the police on Saturday and a first information report (FIR), under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of Pakistan Penal Code, was registered against him, the victim’s father and three others on a complaint of SHO Bagh Chand Oad on behalf of the state.

Addressing a press conference in Khairpur, the husband of the deceased woman revealed that the victim was taken away from his house six months ago by her family on the assurance that they would not hurt her and would bring her back after the delivery of their second child.

However, they killed her after the woman’s father during a jirga declared her ‘kari’, or a woman who has brought dishonour to her family, and asked his son to kill his sister.

According to the husband, his wife who was eight months pregnant was killed a day before being produced in the Sindh High Court in Sukkur, where he had filed a petition seeking her recovery after finding out about the jirga’s pronouncement against the victim.

Police officials said they were conducting raids to arrest the remaining accused nominated in the FIR.

Young women in Pakistan are still being murdered by relatives in the name of honour, more than a year since new laws came into force aimed at stemming the flow of ‘honour killings’.