Honour killing: Police reluctant to launch proper probe

Victim succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being shot by an unknown person at her home

SWAT: Police have lodged an FIR against unidentified persons on Saturday after a young woman critically wounded in a shooting died in hospital here.

Police officials are reluctant to describe the incident as an honour-killing.

According to an official of Matta police station, an FIR was registered against an unidentified person for killing a woman in Shawar village of Matta tehsil.

“Shabeena, 25, wife of Inamullah of Shawar village, succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being shot by an unknown person at her home,” the official said. An official, however, hinted that a close relative was involved in the woman’s murder.

Irfan Hussain Babak, the project director of an NGO working for women’s rights, told The Express Tribune: “As many as 11 women have been murdered since the beginning of this year in Swat.”

He said three of the cases could be labelled as suicides but the other eight women had been the victims of honour-killings.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2017.