Double murder treated as ‘honour crime’

GILGIT: Police are treating a premeditated double murder as if the case was an ‘honour killing’ incident.

On Thursday, police said they have started investigating an incident of honour killing which took place on Monday night. A man is said to have confessed killing his wife and her alleged lover in separate localities on Wednesday in a “rage to protect family honour”.

“We have arrested the man and launched an investigation into the matter of honour killing,” a police official told The Express Tribune on Thursday.

The man identified as Sajjad is said to first have killed his wife in the Konodas area on Wednesday evening and then shot dead Safiullah in the Karosht area.

Later, Sajjad surrendered to the police and accused Safiullah of having maintained illicit relations with his wife “for several months”, saying that he had no other option but “to kill them both”.

After enactment of a law disallowing any leniency to people resorting to “honour killings” on December 8, 2004, such criminals are now supposed to be prosecuted as common murderers and treated under common murder laws.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2010.