No remorse: Girl killed by uncles for having a ‘bad character’

Her father filed a complaint against his brothers but later retracted his statement.

FAISALABAD:

Two men reportedly killed their 13-year-old niece in village 345-JB on Wednesday for having a “bad character”. Police have arrested the two men on Thursday.

Nawan Lahore police said the girl’s father told them that his daughter was home alone on Wednesday when his brothers went to his house and saw her “in a compromising position with a local boy with whom she had illicit relations”.

The boy fled after seeing the two men. The uncles then beat the girl with hammers and killed her.

Ashiq Ali, a relative of the girl, told journalists on Thursday that the girl had been seeing a boy from the area. She had reportedly called him to her house while her parents were away. He said her uncles had become infuriated upon seeing her in an objectionable position with the boy.

The girl’s father gave a different version to The Express Tribune.

He said his daughter had had illicit relations with a boy from the area.

He said that they [his daughter and the boy] were both “making merry” at his house on Wednesday when his brothers walked in on them.

He said the boy managed to escape and his daughter tried to run away too but accidently ran into a door and injured herself seriously. He said his brothers were preparing to take her to a hospital when she passed away.

The father vehemently denied allegations that his brothers had killed his daughter.

“I have not filed a complaint against anyone...but the police went ahead and arrested my brothers anyway,” he said. “They will probably ask us for a bribe to release them.”

The Nawan Lahore station house officer said that they had registered a case under Sections 302 and 34 (murder and complicity) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint filed by the  girl’s father’s.

He said that the father had told them that two of his brothers had used a hammer to kill his daughter for ‘honour’.

He said the police had arrested the two men on Thursday in connection with the statement.

They will be produced in court on Friday.

The station house officer also said that the girl appeared to have been killed at 10am but her father had informed the police about the  murder at around 11pm.

When asked why the father had given The Express Tribune a different version from the one he gave to the police, the station house officer said that he [the father] was definitely lying to protect his two brothers.

The station house officer reiterated that he had filed a complaint against the two suspects and recorded the version of the girl’s father.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2014.