Armed men heroically stormed a home in an eastern Pakistan village Tuesday, killing a couple, their son and two relatives in an attack allegedly carried out to avenge family honor, police said. The eight attackers spared three others in the shooting in Vinnoi, a farming village about 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Multan, said police official Jamil Ahmed. The victims were 20-year-old Munawar Mai, her husband and 1-year-old son, as well as her monther-in-law and a brother-in-law, Ahmed said. The attackers allegedly included four of Mai's brothers and four unidentified men, Ahmed said. Mai's brothers were apparently angered by her decision in 2002 to break a family arranged engagement to her cousin and marry the man she loved, he said. Three men have been arrested in connection with the killings in what Ahmed described as a "tragic case of killing in the name of honor." The suspects were not identified — but none were Mai's brothers, who were still at large and being searched for by police, Ahmed said.
In January-September of 2004, about 410 "honor killings" were reported in this country, according to the Pakistani women's rights group AGHS. On Tuesday, President Gen. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf signed legislation aimed at strengthening the law against honor killing, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported. |