Woman Killed for Honour in Pakistan Sessions Court

Woman Killed for Honour in Pakistan Sessions Court
Photo: REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood - World Economic Forum (2016, July 22) “5,000 women a year are still being killed in the name of ‘honour’” https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/07/honour-killings-pakistan-qandeel-baloch/. 

Emma Barnhoorn

Pakistan and Human Rights Researcher,

Global Human Rights Defence.

In Gujrat, Pakistan, a young woman was allegedly killed over an ‘honour’ issue by two yet to be identified men. She was shot almost immediately after she came out of the sessions court of the Civil Lines Police.

According to witnesses and the police, two unidentified men riding a motorcycle intercepted a car, in which the victim happened to sit, and pulled out its driver. The two men then opened fire on the woman inside the car. She was later identified as Muneeba Bibi, age 25, but help came too late. The assailants fled the scene.

According to a Gujrat police spokesperson, Muneeba had eloped with a man named Adnan around two weeks ago. They later got married in a court in Rawalpindi. Muneeba’s family had registered a kidnapping case against Adnan under Section 365B of the Pakistan Penal Code [1]. The reason for Muneeba being at the sessions court was to make a statement in Adnan’s case saying that she had not been kidnaped nor was she forced to marry him. She was targeted as soon as she left the court.

Police reached the spot and shifted Muneeba’s body to the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital for an autopsy. Another police team collected forensic evidence at the crime scene. According to the police spokesperson, an investigation has been started and footage of CCTV cameras in the area are being gathered. A FIR has been registered against the two suspects on the complaint of Muneeba’s husband (Dawn, 2021).




Notes

[1]: for the full text of the Pakistan Penal Code, please follow this link: http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/1860/actXLVof1860.html

Source and further reading:

Dawn (2021, November 9) “Woman killed for ‘honour’ outside sessions court” https://www.dawn.com/news/1656856/woman-killed-for-honour-outside-sessions-court