Pak women's rights body condemns honour killing of Baloch women
1 Sep 2008, 1437 Hrs

Add comment          Mail          Print          Write to Editor

Islamabad, Sep 1 (ANI): Terming the recently reported "honour killings" in Balochistan as barbaric, the Women Action Forum (WAF), a women's rights organization that has a presence in several cities in Pakistan, has condemned that the inhuman crime and said it deserved the maximum punishment,

Their statement came after media reports stated that five women were brutally tortured and buried alive in Roopashakh, Goth Qaboola, on the border of Naseerabad-Jaffarabad districts on July 14.

Three of the victims had opted for court marriages of their own free will, the Dawn reported.

The rights body demanded that the federal as well as the provincial government must immediately take the strongest possible police and legal action on this heinous crime.

It also expressed its outrage at the fact that for the past six weeks, the local police and law enforcement authorities not only refused to take action, but also were still denying the occurrence of the crime because of the alleged Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) political pressure and influence.

"Like many other honour killings, this one has also been perpetrated with the knowledge, permission and active support of the local government head, District Nazim Sardar Fateh Umrani and the brother of the Minister of State for Housing from that area, who are all PPP stalwarts. Consequently, the villagers are too terrified to give a statement, and the local journalist who was the first to report the incident is being harassed and threatened," the WAF accused.

Ironically Senator Mir Israrullah Zehri of Balochistan National Party-Awami stood on the floor of the Senate and went on the record defending the burying alive of five Baloch women in the name of "Baloch customary laws and traditions," the group said.

The WAF further said an FIR should immediately be filed in the local jurisdiction and the case should then be moved to Quetta or Islamabad for hearing in order to ensure an impartial investigation by the State, free of political pressures, and an impartial judgement providing justice to the women of Pakistan. (ANI)