



Kot Momin police have registered a murder case against a man accused of killing his two sisters after they were declared kari by a jirga.





Investigation Officer SI Rab Nawaz said a team had been formed to arrest the suspect, Farman, 27, who had fled the area after killing his sisters – Kahkshan, 20, and Afshan, 24. He said the FIR had been registered on a complaint filed by Rana Qadeer, father of the deceased girls. The bodies had been sent for a post mortem examination.Police said the jirga had been held after the two girls had returned home from Lahore over a week ago.He quoted the family as saying that they had persuaded the girls to return by assuring them of their safety. But, he said, they later organised a jirga which decided that it was a matter of honour and pardoning the deceased would bring disgrace to the family. The women were then strangled by their brother on directives of the jirga at their home in Mohllah Dak-Khana.Police said the two women had fled home and moved to Lahore over a month ago. They said there was no information about the women’s motive behind fleeing home or the person with whom they stayed in Lahore.They said the family had sought intervention of their contacts in Lahore to persuade the women to return home.Talking to The Express Tribune, Imran, a cousin of the deceased women, justified their killing.He said the women had deserved the punishment for showing disobedience to elders. He said everyone in the family was unanimous in declaring them kari.Published in The Express Tribune, March 9, 2012.