Pakistan Arrests Man for 'Honor' Killing

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While the death is tragic..the fact that someones been arrested for it..shows thngs are changing.

By KHALID TANVEER

Associated Press Writer

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani police arrested a man on charges he killed his 23-year-old daughter for choosing her own husband, an official said Saturday.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had learned of the Nov. 12 killing of Afshin Musarrat from Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission and demanded an investigation.

Musarrat’s father, Musarrat Sahu, initially denied killing his daughter, saying she died of natural causes. But Hamid Mukhtar Gondal, police chief in the eastern city of Multan, said Sahu later confessed in custody. He was arrested Thursday.

The girl was strangulated to death. We will formally charge Musarrat Sahu for killing his daughter next week,'' Gondal said Saturday. We have enough evidence to prove the charge.‘’

``Honor killings’’ are illegal in Pakistan, but are common. Most marriages are arranged, and in many conservative tribal and rural regions where traditional attitudes hold sway it is considered a crime for a woman to choose her own husband.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has documented that more than 450 deaths of women in honor killings by family members last year.

Police often either fail to arrest suspects in such crimes or the culprits escape punishment, mainly because of flaws in the country’s judicial system.

Musharraf took an interest in the case earlier this week after a member of the rights commission wrote to him about it.

Gondal said police will make the Musarrat’s murder a test case and will pursue other suspects who may have been involved in the killing.

``Our president took interest in this case. We took it very seriously and we still believe that Musarrat Sahu was not alone behind his daughter’s murder,‘’ Gondal said.

``We suspect that some other family members helped him. They will also be arrested.‘’

Shahid Rahman, whose letter to Musharraf led to Sahu’s arrest, told The Associated Press that the rights commission will keep pursuing the case until the killers of the woman are punished.

After Afshin Musarrat's death when I approached the police, they refused to listen to me,'' he said. Police only took interest in this case when President Musharraf ordered investigations into this tragic murder,‘’ he said.

It was not immediately clear what happened to the husband. Gondal said they were looking for him to give him protection.

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There's hope :) in our culturally backward chauvanistic society. Things are indeed changing for the better. insha'Allah.

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yeah, I felt really glad when I read this news. We need to make reforms on the grassroot level, such as empowerment of women through education, employment opportunities, and equality in order to get rid of this menace.

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here's more on the related story..

30 November 2003 Sunday 05 Shawwal 1424

Victim's father not produced in court: Honour-killing incident
By A Correspondent

MULTAN, Nov 29: Police have not yet produced the father of Afsheen Mussarrat before a duty magistrate to bring his 'arrest' on record.
Mussarrat Husain Sahu had courted arrest on Eid day following the publication of a news item based on autopsy report that Afsheen had died an unnatural death. The report confirmed that she had been tortured and strangled.
Afsheen died on Nov 10 last at her father's house in Gulshan-i-Mehar Colony in Multan. Her family buried her the next day in ancestral village Marri Sahu in Kabirwala tehsil in Khanewal district, some 50 kilometres from here, declaring her death as natural.
However, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's Multan Task Force coordinator Advocate Rashid Rehman filed an application with the Gulgashat police station to draw the attention of the law enforcers towards the mysterious circumstances that led to Afsheen's death and feared that she might have been killed for the sake of honour.
A computer science graduate, Afsheen was married to her paternal cousin Nauman on Sept 12 last against her will. She wanted to marry her maternal cousin and class fellow Hassan Mustafa.
It is said that Afsheen and Hassan had solemnized a secret nikkah even before her 'forced' marriage with Nauman.
On Nov 1 last, Afsheen eloped with Hassan and took refuge in Rawalpindi at the house of a family acquaintance. However, her father and other male family members managed to bring her back on Nov 8 and she died two days afterwards.
The Multan police initially did not give the matter much importance. According to an HRCP report, the police rather discouraged rights activists arguing that under the Qisas and Diyat laws action in such cases without the consent of heirs was not possible.
The police had to take up the matter seriously on Saturday last when President Gen Pervez Musharraf condemned atrocities against women and ordered a thorough inquiry into the 'mystery' death of Afsheen Mussarrat.
A medical board comprising four doctors conducted autopsy on the body of Afsheen after 14 days of her death and sent samples to the chemical examiner to ascertain the exact cause of her death. In its initial report, the board confirmed that Afsheen's death was unnatural.
Sources in the police department said that prime suspects in the Afsheen case were her father Mussarrat, grandfather Allah Ditta and unidentified number of male relatives. They said though Mussarrat Husain had 'confessed' to the murder but the police did not believe him that he was the lone killer. They said more than two people had tortured the deceased and the police were trying to extract their names from Mussarrat during interrogation before producing him in the court.
Meanwhile, scores of rights activists staged a protest rally organized by the Awaz Foundation here on Saturday in front of the local press club to condemn killings in the name of honour

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nice to know there is hope after all :k:

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if only the president didnt have to 'personally' intervene to get our police cracking.

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:k:

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Justice is done :k: