‘Honour’ killing: Man guns down married sister for eloping

Woman allegedly fled from her husband and eloped with another man

LAHORE: A mother of three was shot dead by her brother for the sake of “honour”, while another woman and a man were injured in the same incident on the Lower Mall on Thursday.

The victim was married to Muhammad Hassan and reportedly had three children from the marriage.

However, she allegedly developed relations with another man and eloped with him. The women finally returned after the intervention of a political figure.



On the day of the incident, a meeting of the victim’s family and her in-laws was taking place when the brother arrived at the scene. He pulled out his weapon and opened indiscriminate fire, injuring three people.

The wounded were shifted to a nearby hospital where doctors pronounced the woman as dead on arrival. The other injured people included the aunt of the deceased and her cousin. They are currently undergoing treatment at the hospital, while the suspect fled from the scene.

Police teams reached at the spot after hearing of the incident.

They collected forensic evidence from crime scene and recorded the statements of eyewitnesses.

FIR No 56/17 was registered against the suspect and police were investigating the matter further.

Violence against women is rampant in Pakistani society. Over 3,000 women were killed for the sake honour over the last two-and-a-half years.

Data analysis showed that such incidents occurred more frequently in urban centers. This is not the first incident in Lahore as last year, a mother burnt her daughter alive for marrying of her out of choice in the Factory Area.



A few weeks after the incident, a man had shot his daughter dead son-in-law dead in Nawab Town for the sake honor. A month before prior to that, a man had killed his sister and injured a cousin with an axe in Barki.

In another such incident, a teenage boy shot dead his sister dead for turning down a marriage proposal.  Feminists and human rights activists blame the chauvinist mindset for such incidents.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2017.