In a gruesome incident, a woman and her three daughters were found brutally murdered in their home in what police suspect is an alleged incident of 'honour' killing.
The incident was reported from the Kabal tehsil of Swat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Swat Superintendent of Police Investigation Badshah Hazrat Khan said that they were called to a house where they discovered the bodies of a woman and her three daughters.
Badshah told The Friday Times that the victims were shot and stabbed with a sharp object. The victims were determined to be a 35-year-old woman and her three daughters, aged 19, 16 and 13.
The police believe that a man named Sardar Ali, who lives and works abroad and was the woman's husband and father of the three girls, is responsible. Badshah claimed that Ali had returned recently and, after allegedly murdering his family for honour, had fled abroad.
The police officer said they learnt about the presence of the bodies and of Sardar Ali's suspected involvement from his brother-in-law, whom Sardar Ali had called three days after murdering his family. The brother of the victim stated that the suspect, Sardar Ali, fled after committing the crime.
Badshah said that the police team found the bodies at Sardar Ali's home, just as he had relayed. The officer said that they have collected evidence while the bodies have been shifted to the hospital for post-mortem. A case has been registered against the suspect at the nearest police station.
Swat District Police Officer Dr Zahidullah told The Friday Times that an investigation is underway and that the accused will be brought to justice soon.
Honour killing?
Residents of the tehsil who knew Sardar Ali said that he has been living abroad for the past 15 years and works as a labourer.
However, residents claim that while they are unsure of his exact motives, they believe Sardar Ali killed his wife and three daughters in the name of honour, a concept not uncommon in Swat.
The Awakening, a non-governmental organisation which has been working on domestic violence, honour killings, sexual assault, and suicide cases in Swat since 2012, said that they have recorded the deaths of some 229 people who have been killed in the name of honour in Swat over the past seven years. These victims include 211 women and 18 men.
Tabassum Adnan, the founder of a women's rights activist group 'Khuvindu Jirga', told The Friday Times that it is essential to understand that every human being has the right to live their life with dignity, whether it's a boy or a girl and that we need to change our mindset towards this.
Adnan expressed concern over the rising number of honour killings in Swat, stating that every day, men and women are being killed in the name of honour in different parts of Swat. She was expressly concerned about how people felt proud of committing the heinous deed.
The women's rights activist claimed that most of the women who were killed for 'honour' were killed in the tehsils of Kabal and Matta, which speaks to a dangerous trend.
Tabassum demanded that the suspect, Sardar Ali, should be arrested through Interpol and extradited to Pakistan to face trial for his alleged acts and be handed exemplary punishment if found guilty. She feared these incidents would continue to increase if justice is not done.
Advocate Saiful Islam told The Friday Times that most of the suspects involved in honour killings are usually relatives or family members of the victims. This is one reason, he claimed, that cases are not registered against suspects, or if the cases are registered, no testimony is recorded before the court. Consequently, the suspects are acquitted. When asked, Islam clarified that the court does not accept a compromise in cases of honour killing while the accused are punished lightly, which encourages such crimes.
Regarding actions that can be taken to prevent honour killings of men and women in the Swat or other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, political and social personalities, religious scholars, doctors, psychologists, and security agencies agree that everyone must be on the same page and those involved in such incidents should be given the strict punishment.