Woman brutally killed over love marriage in Pakistan

Islamabad, May 15 (IANS/EFE) Three family members brutally killed a woman with a sickle for marrying a man from a different caste in the eastern town of Sahiwal in Pakistan, a police source told Efe Thursday.

Farzana, 20, was killed by three of her family members who were against her inter-caste marriage to Shabir, 26.

"The victim's relatives kept chasing the couple, following which the two jumped off a moving train", Ejaz Ullah, a police officer from Sahiwal, said.

The family later convinced the woman to return to the town, where in front of the panchayat the two conflicting tribal clans accepted the marriage.

After the decision, the family of Farzana took her home where she was butchered with a sickle, police said.

The victim's uncle has been detained by the police while two other suspects are still at large.

According to the report published by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 913 women were victims of honour killings in 2012, which declined just slightly to 869 in 2013.

"The murderers enjoy complete impunity," says the report, as, according to Islamic tradition, the perpetrators can be acquitted if the victim's family pardons the crime.

--IANS/EFE

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