Girl shot dead by brother over ‘free will marriage’

Uzma had married a man of her choice, angering her family

SUKKUR: A girl was killed by her younger brother in Gul Muhammad Paryo village in Naushero Feroz district on Sunday for choosing the right to marry of her own free will.

Abdul Waheed Paryo gunned down his elder sister, Uzma, when she demanded going back to her husband following her homecoming after an intervention by the local police.



The suspected murderer also tried to bury his sister without performing the last rites. Meanwhile, neighbours informed Phull police who confiscated the body before the planned burial but failed to nab the accused who had reportedly escaped.

However, a local journalist claimed the police later managed to arrest Paryo but are not ready to declare it owing to pressure from some influential persons.

Phull police station SHO Niaz Mazari told The Express Tribune the police had recovered the girl's body but the accused was still at large. He negated the accusation that police were hiding the boy's arrest due to pressure from some quarters, and claimed they are carrying out raids to arrest him.



According to the residents, six months ago Uzma eloped with Abdul Aziz Hattar, who lived in the nearby Sadhuja village. This marriage of free will angered her parents, who asked her to return and then promised to send her back to her husband 'in a respectable way'.

Trusting her parents, the girl along with her husband went to the local police, which produced the couple in the Sindh High Court's Larkana bench. In her statement before the court, Uzma said she had married Hattar of her free will and now her parents had asked her to come back because they are ready to accept the marriage. On this, the court handed her over to her parents.

Uzma reportedly started living with her parents and kept waiting for her 'rukhsati'. On Sunday, when she decided to put her foot down after three months had lapsed in a state of limbo, a heated family debate was triggered, which led to her brother taking out his pistol and shooting her dead.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2016.