Pakistani family shot dead in 'honour killing' after wedding

Dozens of relatives of a Pakistani teenager who eloped against her parents' wishes shot her dead on Monday in a raid on her new home which also left her husband and in-laws dead, police said.

Telegraph.co.uk
Published: 4:32PM BST 29 Jun 2009

Relatives dressed in police uniforms stormed the bridegroom's house in the district of Charsadda, in North West Frontier Province.

"The assailants took the bridegroom out while some of the attackers climbed the wall and entered the house. They killed the bride, the mother and sister of the bridegroom," said Saleem Jan, a police official for the Charsadda district.

"They beat them first and then shot them dead," he told AFP news agency.

The groom's father was also killed, another police official told AFP.

Police said the bride, who was 18 or 19 years old, came from the deeply conservative Mardan district next to Charsadda. She had run away and married her boyfriend, who was around 30, without telling her parents.

"Both the girl and man married some weeks ago," Misal Khan, the bridegroom's uncle, told reporters at the scene.

Police said the main suspects were two uncles and a cousin.

Human rights groups have strongly condemned the practice of honour killings in Pakistan, which claim the lives of hundreds of women each year.

Amnesty International says many killings are unreported and in almost all cases the perpetrators, who are often close family members, go unpunished.

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