PESHAWAR // A Pakistani woman was drugged, strangled and then her body set ablaze because she helped her friend elope, police said on Thursday, announcing the arrest of 14 people.
The victim, believed to be around 20 years old, was killed then burnt in a Suzuki van on the orders of the village jirga, or council, in Makol, north-west Pakistan, on April 29, said district police chief Khurram Rasheed.
“Police have arrested 13 members of the jirga who ordered the murder of the girl,” Mr Rasheed said.
The victim’s mother was also arrested because she supported the jirga’s decision.
A local antiterrorism court on Thursday remanded the 14 suspects into police custody for two weeks on murder and terrorism charges.
The owner of the van was also a member of the jirga. His van was burnt because the eloping woman – who is believed to be safely in hiding – travelled in it when she ran away.
Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives in Pakistan each year on the pretext of defending family “honour”, but it is rare to hear of those who facilitate elopements being killed as well.
Activist Samar Minallah said jirgas can make such decisions to teach a lesson to other women in the community.
“Until and unless you take strong action against these jirga members and their supporters in the community, no law can help to stop the brutal killing of women for honour,” she said.
Pakistan amended its criminal code in 2005 to prevent men who kill female relatives from 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 that critics say remains exploited.
A film telling the rare story of a Pakistani woman who survived an attempted honour killing, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, won the Academy Award for best documentary short in February.
Amid publicity for the film, prime minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to eradicate the “evil” of honour killings but no fresh legislation has been tabled since then.
* Agence France-Presse
