Islamabad: Pakistani authorities on Sunday arrested a suspect after a viral video on social media showed a man and a woman being shot and killed for marrying against their families’ wishes.
According to Deutsche Welle, the practice, known as “honor killing,” is a prevalent issue in Pakistan and some neighboring countries, where eloped couples are killed to “restore” the family’s social standing and reputation. Such killings also occur in other situations where the patriarch deems the family’s honor has been affected by women’s actions.
In this instance, the unidentified couple was shot on the orders of a local tribe council in the southwestern Balochistan province, as confirmed by local authorities following an investigation. The video captures the moment when the woman, standing defiant, told the gunman, “You are allowed only to shoot me. Nothing more than that,” before being shot three times.
The footage depicted the woman’s lifeless body falling to the ground and showed the bloody corpse of a man lying beside her. The perpetrators are then seen continuing to shoot at both bodies.
The issue of “honor killings” remains a grave concern in Pakistan, with approximately 1,000 women killed annually by close relatives, typically fathers, brothers, or sons, as reported by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. In many instances, the perpetrators escape punishment due to a controversial clause in Pakistan’s Islamic law that allows the victim’s relatives to pardon the killer. Although the government took steps to partially abolish this law in 2016, “honor killings” persist.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif condemned the act by sharing the video on X, calling for people to stand up against “this system of oppression” rather than raising their weapons against the state.