Islamabad: In a shameful event of
hate-crime, a 16-year-old girl in rural Pakistan was drugged, strangled and
burned alive on the orders of village elders for helping a couple elope.
Pakistani police arrested 15 members of a
tribal council in Makol in northwest Pakistan accused of ordering the killing
of the teenager — including her mother and brother.
The murder of the girl has been labeled an
“honor killing”, with her family members present at her ‘trial’and allegedly
supporting her death sentence. The 16-year-old girl was set on fire last
week in the town of Donga Gali, about 30 miles northeast of the capital, Islamabad,
on the orders of the council, said district Police Chief Saeed Wazir.
Police said the honor killing was ordered
as punishment for what the council deemed irreparable damage to the village’s reputation
The couple which the
teenager is alleged to have helped elope appeared to have escaped. The girl’s
mother and brother were also arrested, Wazir said, as they were present during
the meeting and allegedly agreed to the sentence.
A local anti-terrorism
court on Thursday remanded the 15 suspects into police custody for two weeks on
murder and terrorism charges.
Jirgas, or tribal councils, are often
called in Pakistan’s northwestern regions as a means of local conflict
resolution, but their edicts have no legal standing under Pakistani law.
Hundreds of women are murdered by their
relatives in Pakistan each year on the pretext of defending family ‘honor’, but
it is rare to hear of those who facilitate elopements being killed as well.
Pakistan amended its criminal code in 2005
to prevent men who kill female relatives escaping punishment by pardoning
themselves as an ‘heir’ of the victim.
But it is left to a judge’s discretion to
decide whether to impose a prison sentence when other relatives of the victim
forgive the killer — a loophole which critics say remains exploited.
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