Lahore model killed by step-brother for honour: police
He tried to mislead the police
The 29-year-old model, found dead in Lahore’s DHA Phase IV last month, was murdered by her step-brother, the police said Sunday.
Initial investigation reports revealed she was strangled to death. According to the investigation officer, the victim was killed by the suspect, identified as Aslam, for honour.
“Aslam confessed that he strangled the woman first and then stripped off her clothes to mislead the police that she was raped,” the officer said, adding that the evidence collected from the crime scene confirmed his involvement.
The footprints found from the 29-year-old woman’s house matched the suspect’s footprints. He was the only person who visited her that day, the investigations revealed.
On July 11, Aslam filed a complaint that his step-sister was murdered after which the police registered an FIR against unidentified men. The victim lived alone.
Punjab reported over 6,000 honour killings between 2011 and 2020
Punjab Police
Last week, a mother of three children was shot dead by her brother in an alleged honour killing case in Lahore.
According to the statistics available by the Punjab Police, at least 6,277 cases of honour killings occurred in Punjab between 2011 and 2020. The maximum number of cases was 404 in 2014.
Around a thousand Pakistani women are murdered in honour killings each year — in which the victim, normally a woman, is killed by a relative for bringing shame on the family.
Perpetrators have often walked free because of a legal loophole that allowed them to seek forgiveness for the crime from another family member.
But the government has since passed a law that mandates life imprisonment, even if the attacker escapes capital punishment through a relative’s pardon.
“Antiquated and lethal notions that ‘honour’ resides in women’s bodies and actions still prevail across Pakistan,” the country’s Human Rights Commission said in a statement.
There have been increased calls from civil society for a crackdown on violence against women, in particular, and rape and sodomy cases and cases in which children are targeted. The Noor Mukadam murder case has been in the headlines, prompting calls for stricter action and laws against violence.
Meanwhile, the Council of Islamic Ideology has expressed its reservations on a few points of the Pakistan Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill 2021, saying that they are against the injunctions of Islam.
The CII has shown its disagreement over the definition of the word ‘violence’ and says the content pertaining to it is against the basic teachings of Shariah.
It feared the bill would weaken the supervisory role of a father or any other responsible elder in the matters of a family.
