Police arrest man who allegedly shot dead two of his cousins

Suspected honour killings after video of the sisters kissing a man surfaced online

APakistani man accused of killing his two teenage cousins after a video of the sisters surfaced on social media showing them kissing a man was arrested yesterday, a local police official said.

The killings took place last week in North Waziristan, a former tribal area that served as a Taliban stronghold until recent years. The video, filmed about a year ago, went viral last week and allegedly angered the sisters’ cousin, who accused them of damaging the family’s honour.

The arrest came following a five-day manhunt launched in the region to find and arrest

Mohammad Aslam, who fled after allegedly killing the sisters last week, said Shafiullah Gandapur, a district police chief in North Waziristan.

Police had arrested the man seen in the video kissing the two sisters and he is suspected of posting the video on social media. Gandapur said the video angered the girls’ cousin Aslam, who is now accused of shooting the girls dead.

“We are also questioning the father and brother of the two girls to determine whether they played any role in the murder,” he said.

So-called honour killings are a significant issue in Pakistan, where nearly 1,000 women are killed by close relatives each year because of actions perceived as violating conservative norms on love and marriage.

The incidents have continued even though the country’s parliament in 2016 made legal changes to mandate a 25-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of an honour killing.

Earlier this month, Pakistan’s independent human rights commission in its annual report gave a failing grade to the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, charging that too little was done to protect the country’s most vulnerable, including women and children.

Police had arrested the man seen in the video kissing the two sisters and he is suspected of posting the video on social media. The father and brother of the two girls are also being questioned.