Karachi: Police on Monday arrested at least nine people on suspicion of murdering and burying a couple in a case of ‘honour’ killing.
Police exhumed the bodies of the two who were believed to be executed by family members and their bodies burnt, officials said.
The murders took place some three days back, but the incident did not come to light earlier as family members of the couple kept the incident a secret.
The couple, identified as Hadi and Husaina, were cousins and residents of Mominabad neighbourhood in western Karachi.
They allegedly eloped from their homes and were living in a rented house. The murders were discovered when the owner of the house, which the couple hired, realised that both were missing for the past three days.
When he entered the house he saw blood splattered around the house and reported the matter to the local police.
The police started its investigation and after arresting some relatives they came to know that the couple was killed by the family and unceremoniously buried in a graveyard.
“The owner of the house reported to us the incident and we raided the house. Both were killed in the name of honour, our initial finding suggested” police officer Qasim Hameed said, adding he had arrested nine people including the father of Hadi.
Nine people were arrested, including the father of the murdered man, while the father of the woman was on the run.
The bodies were recovered from a graveyard and were identified by the arrested people. Police said the bodies were stuffed into gunny bags and buried in two separate graves without any funeral prayers.
Police are investigating how they were killed.
“We are investigating whether the execution was decreed by a jirga (informal council of elders) and how they were killed,” Abid Baloch, a senior police officer told the media at the site where the bodies were exhumed.
Pools of blood seen in the house suggested the couple might have been slaughtered, but police said that only after autopsy of the bodies could they be sure of the tools used for the murder.
Around a thousand Pakistan women fall victims to so-called honour killings each year — in which the victims, normally a woman, are usually killed by a relative for bringing dishonour to the family.
Perpetrators have often walked free because of a legal loophole that allows them to seek forgiveness from another family member for the crime.
However, earlier this month the government passed a law that mandates life imprisonment even if the attacker escapes capital punishment via a relative’s pardon.
