Police arrest six for honour killing of married couple

A tribal 'jirga' – which included the woman's first husband and his relatives – had sentenced the pair to death

KARACHI: Police on Thursday said they had arrested six men suspected of strangling a couple to death in the latest so-called honour killings to hit the country, weeks after the government passed long-awaited legislation to combat the crime.

The victims had been married for a year and were living in Karachi's Malir district after the woman left her previous husband and fled her home in the city's west.

A tribal 'jirga' or informal council – which included her first husband and his relatives – sentenced the pair to death. Holding jirgas is illegal according to the law.



"They were strangled and buried in a graveyard by the jirga members," Javed Akbar, a senior police officer told AFP, adding that the men were arrested on Tuesday.

Around a thousand women fall victim to so-called honour killings each year – in which the victim, normally a woman, is killed by a relative for bringing shame to the family.

Perpetrators have often walked free because of a legal loophole that allowed them to seek forgiveness for the crime from another family member, but earlier this month the government passed a law that mandates life imprisonment even if the attacker escapes capital punishment via a relative's pardon.