Three Teenage Girls Buried Alive In "Honour" Killings

All this because they wanted to marry men of their choice;

Three teenage girls who planned to defy their families and marry men of their choice were buried alive in “honour killings”. Now the Pakistani Government has been forced to order an inquiry, six weeks after the crimes.

The girls were taken from their remote village, Baba Kot, in southwestern Balochistan, to a deserted area where they were badly tortured before being pushed into a ditch and covered with sand and stones. One was named as Fauzia Bibi, 18, but the other two – thought to be aged 14 and 16 – were not identified.

When two older women – Jannat Bibi, 38, Fauzia’s aunt, and Fatima Bibi, 45, the mother of another girl – tried to protect the teenagers they were also buried alive. The assailants then fired into the air to deter anyone from approaching the scene.

Details of incident, which allegedly took place on July 13, were recently revealed by a human rights organisation. The deaths sparked protests nationwide and have led to angry scenes in parliament over accusations of an official cover-up.

Police have arrested six people, including the fathers and some of the brothers of the girls, who were allegedly involved in the murders. But human-rights activists say authorities are protecting a local politician said to have been involved in the incident.

The man, the younger brother of a minister in Balochistan’s provincial government and a member of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), reportedly abducted the girls at gun-point and took them away in a vehicle bearing a government registration plate. He was also allegedly involved in beating the girls. He and his brother deny all involvement.
read the rest...