Swinging the sword: Honour and search for justice

Third case of honour killing from Mansehra over last two months

MANSEHRA: It was a simple story with a gruesome end. A couple who hailed from a village in Chilas fell in love and wished to get married. When the girl’s family refused to get them married, they decided to elope and get married in court.

After they had eloped, the couple settled in Mohallah Battdariyan, Mansehra. Unfortunately, the past clawed its way back into their lives and eventually became the cause of their death.

On Wednesday, a married couple who had eloped from their village in Chilas, Gilgit-Baltistan was killed in a gruesome manner in Mansehra.

Amman Ahmed, a relative of the deceased who hails from Chilas and lived with the couple, told The Express Tribune 28-year-old Shahid and his 19-year-old wife, Hasina Bibi, moved to Mansehra after getting married against the wishes of the latter’s family.

“On Tuesday night, I was woken up by strange noises that were coming from a room in my house,” he said. “Four unidentified armed men had entered our house. They first beat the couple mercilessly with clubs and slit their throats. I tried to save them but Shahid and Hasina Bibi were dead.”

In the name of honour

According to the police, the couple had eloped and had fallen victim to honour killing. The bodies of the deceased had been dispatched to their native village by Edhi ambulance.

“This is the third case of honour killing from Mansehra over the last two months,” a police official told The Express Tribune. “Only last month, two couples, who allegedly got married without the consent of their parents, were murdered.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2015.