Man kills daughter, son-in-law, two grandsons over ‘honour’ in Hafizabad

HAFIZABAD: A man killed his daughter, her husband and two grandsons over honour in the Nasowal area of Hafizabad on Friday night.

According to the police, the accused Gulzar Ahmad was infuriated with his daughter and her family for entering a love marriage, some four years earlier. As a result, he barged into the house of the daughter, killed her, her husband and two children with a sharp-edged knife.

District Police Officer (DPO) Saifullah Khattak informed that the accused has been arrested with the murder weapon, and a case registered against him under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The bodies of the victims have been shifted to the tehsil headquarters hospital for post-mortem examination and a case is being registered against the suspected killer in the Jalalpur Bhattian police station. The anti-terrorism section will also be added in the first information report.

In October 2016, a joint sitting of both houses of parliament passed two key pro-women bills that had been pending assent for a long time.

At least 280 such murders were recorded by the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan from October 2016 to June 2017 ─ a figure believed to be understated and incomplete.

The legislation mandates life imprisonment for honour killings, but whether a murder can be defined as a crime of honour is left to the judge’s discretion.