South Asia » Pakistan
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Honour killing: A crime rampant in Pak
Press Trust of India
Multan, December 29, 2005
Nazir Ahmed appears calm and unrepentant as he recounts how he slit the throats of his three young daughters and their 25-year-old stepsister to salvage his family's 'honour' - a crime that shocked Pakistan.
The 40-year-old labourer, speaking to the agency in police detention as he was being shifted to jail, confessed to just one regret - that he didn't murder the stepsister's alleged lover too.
Hundreds of girls and women are murdered by male relatives each year in this conservative Islamic nation, and rights groups said on Wednesday such "honour killings" will only stop when authorities get serious about punishing perpetrators.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that in more than half of such cases that make it to court, most are settled with cash settlements paid by relatives to the victims' families, although under a law passed last year, the minimum penalty is 10 years, the maximum death by hanging.
Ahmed's killing spree - witnessed by his wife Rehmat Bibi as she cradled their 3 month-old baby son - happened Friday night at their home in the cotton-growing village of Gago Mandi in eastern Punjab province.
It is the latest of more than 260 such honour killings documented by the rights commission, mostly from media reports, during the first 11 months of 2005.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.