Woman shot dead over honour in Pakistan's Peshawar
Dec 08, 2021
Peshawar [Pakistan], December 8 : The so-called honour killings in Pakistan continue to plague the nation with the latest being an incident where a woman was shot dead outside the judicial complex in Peshawar.
Citing police official, ARY News reported that the woman was shot dead outside gate no 2 of the judicial complex in Peshawar by her father and brother over honour.
However, the duo of father-son has been detained by the police, who later have confessed to killing over honour, the Pakistani media said, adding that the weapons used in the crime have also been recovered.
Pakistan accounts for about a fifth of the 5,000 honour killings globally each year.
Observers have noted that violence is not just meted out to women only but equally threatens men's lives as well.
Such criminal acts in Pakistan are justified on the stance that when men and women commit adultery or involve in elopement, it becomes incumbent upon the family to restore honour by killing them. Certain cultural traditions and social arrangements in various Pakistani households are used to support this mindset in an effort to maintain the family's "honour" and do not regard it as an act of violence.
According to experts, honour killings have a strong connection with a belief that society permits killing a person if he tries to transgress the limits set by its decades-long traditions, seeking no legal intervention.
This kind of belief has also made the crime slipped out of the hands of the police as it deprives them of the ability to save the victim's life from the clutches of the offenders, reported Pakistan Daily.
A police report revealed that 126 people were suspected of being involved in honour killings in the Sindh province of Pakistan between January 2019 and January 2020, out of 32 are still being investigated.
Honour killings have claimed over 70 live in the rural parts of Sindh during the first six months of 2019, according to official figures in the local media.
Rights activists say that honour killings, like any other act of violence, threaten a person's life and liberty to exercise their right to life. They maintain that no one should be allowed to take law in his own hands and make decisions on his own, creating chaos and public disorder.
