Man kills sister-in-law in name of ‘honour’

Alleged extra-marital affair became cause of murder

CHAK JHUMRA:

A man shot dead his sister-in-law who had been allegedly having an affair in the absence of her husband who lived in Dubai.

Police seized the body of the deceased and handed it over to her heirs and registered a case.

According to the police report, the 38-year-old woman had been married for 10 years. Her husband had been working in Dubai.

Meanwhile, she allegedly had an affair with a young man in her village.

Her brother-in-law, Asif, who somehow learnt about the alleged affair, told her many times to stop seeing the young man. The alleged affair continued despite Asif’s warnings. Getting frustrated over her sister-in-law’s defiance, Asif shot her to death.

As soon as the incident of honor killing was reported, police officers, including the SP of Iqbal Town, rushed to the spot. They started raids to arrest the suspect who had gone into hiding.

As many as 81 women had been killed in the name of “honour” across Punjab last year. The highest number was reported in the Gujranwala region where 17 women lost their lives.

Read: ‘Noor Muqqadam may have been killed for honour’

Statistics projected in an adjournment motion presented by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) MPA Syeda Zahra Naqvi in the Punjab Assembly showed that the incidents of honour killings showed an alarming surge in the province. She had said that 178 suspects killed women in the name of “honour”.

There had been 62 suspects out of a total of 178 who were still at large, and police were clueless about why they could not be arrested.

The provincial government was going to introduce legislation specifically on “women’s murder in the name of honour” wherein exemplary punishment would be proposed for the assailants.

“The process has been initiated and the quarters concerned have been taken on board to ensure that the legislation which the provincial government would introduce in coming two or three sessions of the Punjab Assembly will be a comprehensive legislation, and there will be no loopholes in it,” said a PTI MPA, Seemabia Tahir.

She had said that the incidents of honour killing were increasing day by day, and women were murdered in the name of “honour”.

The lawmaker had highlighted that there had been different laws protecting women, but the laws the PTI was going to introduce would specifically be relating to honour killings.

On a query what sort of punishments would be proposed for the assailants, MPA Seemabia said all the relevant issues were being discussed, but one thing was very clear that the exemplary punishment would be given to root out the reoccurrence of the incidents.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2022.