449 murdered for Karo-kari in four months
KARACHI – Women in Pakistan faced all kinds of gross violence and abuse at the hands of male family members and state agents. Multiple forms of violence including rape, domestic abuse, spousal murder, mutilation, burning, disfiguring of faces by acid-throwing, beatings, ritual honour killings, and custodial abuse figured most prominently.
According to a report prepared by Madadgar, a project of Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), as many as 449 individuals have already been murdered in the name of Karo-Kari in 2004.
The centuries-old customary murders, popularly known as Karo-Kari (honour killing) in Sindh have already claimed the lives of 17 girls and 317 women, in the first quarter of the current year. Nineteen cases have been registered in Shikarpur district alone.
In Shikarpur two women, who were cousins, as young as 17 and 18, visited relatives in Sukkur without the permission of their parents and were murdered in the name of Karo-Kari on their return.
Reports indicate that the girls were driven back from Sukkur by an influential Junoo landowner, Abdul Rashid Bhutto. When their brother, a police constable, demanded their safe return, he was informed that they had been branded Karis and murdered.
The brother lodged FIR in the case, but he and his family members were threatened, while police have failed to take action against the culprits. The girls’ bodies have been recovered from a fishpond in the presence of a Judge and a doctor, and, after a post-mortem, have been handed over to the bereaved family.
According to a report released by Madadgar, Bhutto, along with eight accomplices, is allegedly responsible for the murders, which were subsequently upheld by a Jirga.
It is pertinent to note that the Sindh High Court (SHC) decision has called for the banning of Jirgas.
Madadgar strongly condemns these brutal murders and has demanded of the governor to take stern action to bring the perpetrators to justice. Zia Ahmed Awan, President, LHRLA, charges that authorities should have been more proactive in taking action in this double murder case. He pleaded to the concerned High Court or Supreme Court to intervene in all the Karo-kari cases. He also urged the concerned authorities to take swift action against those culprits.
Every year in Pakistan, hundreds of women of all ages and in all parts of the country are reported killed in the name of honour. Many more cases go unreported. Almost all go unpunished. He said the lives of millions of women in Pakistan are circumscribed by traditions which enforce extreme submission of women to men.
He demanded of the authorities that the practice of Karo-Kari must be abolished across the nation if women and girls are to be given equal protection and dignity under national laws and in accordance with international Human Rights norms, standards, and conventions which the state is a signatory to.
Source: The News
Date:5/18/2004
” 
” 
” 
” 
” 
