Two people including a woman were killed for honour in Mian Channu on Thursday.
The mother of three children Khalida Bibi and her cousin Mukhtar were killed by the woman’s father Riaz, brother Shahbaz and husband Javed.
Both the victims were later hanged to a tree.
Mukhtar had paid a visit alone to Khalida Bibi’s house on which her husband became furious and killed both of them with the help of the woman’s father and brother.
More than 500 people — almost all women — die in Pakistan each year in such killings, usually carried out by members of the victim’s family meting out punishment for bringing “shame” on the community and violating traditional values.
On July 16, Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch was murdered by her younger brother in what police suspect was a so-called “honour killing”.
In June, a 16-year-old girl Zeenat Bibi was murdered by her mother for marrying the man of her choice whereas in the same month 19-year-old Maria Sadaqat was tortured then burned alive for refusing a marriage proposal from a school principal’s son in Murree.
In April, a young woman was strangled and then her body set ablaze because she helped a friend elope in Abbottabad, another case that sparked revulsion.
Pakistan amended its criminal code in 2005 to prevent men who kill female relatives escaping punishment by pardoning themselves as an “heir” of the victim.
But it is left to a judge’s discretion to decide whether to impose a prison sentence when other relatives of the victim forgive the killer — a loophole which critics say remains exploited.
