At least two Pakistan wedding women alive in ‘honour killing’ case

“Two of the girls have been traced. Human Rights activist Farzana Bari met
them. She has told me the girls have been identified,” said provincial chief
secretary Ghulam Dastgir Khan.

Ms Bari was now en route back to Islamabad by helicopter with a video showing
the two women to prove that they are safe, he added.

Another human rights activist, Fauzia Saeed, confirmed the details.

“We met one girl. She was identified because we carried pictures of the girls.
We met another who we could not identify but people in the area said she is
among the women in the video,” she told Express TV.

Pakistan’s most senior judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said he was ready to
send in the army unless he had a clear report on all the women.

“You have half an hour to give us a report, otherwise we will send one of our
own officers, then you should be ready to face the consequences,” he said.

“We are even ready to provide you troops,” he added. “Delay will not help the
operation. Either the girls will escape or be killed.”

Mohammad Afzal, a brother of one of the men in the video, has said the women
were killed on May 30 on the orders of a cleric who led a 40 to 50-member
tribal jirga.

The entire case has been shrouded in mystery.

Police say the scandal was rooted in tribal rivalry, saying the video was
recorded three years ago and then edited in an attempt to implicate the
party goers.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says at least 943 women and girls were
murdered last year after being accused of defaming their family’s honour.

The statistics highlight the violence suffered by many women in conservative
Muslim Pakistan, where they are frequently treated as second-class citizens.

Source: AFP

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