In an apparent honour killing case, a man shot dead his two young sisters in Pakistan's Punjab province on suspicion that they had 'bad character'.

According to police, Umar Hayat of chak-41 North, some 200 kilometres from Lahore, suspected that his sisters Razia and Noreen, who were in their 20s, had relations with the men of the locality. "Yesterday Hayat had a quarrel with her sisters before he shot them dead at their house," Shafique Ahmed, a police official said.

He said the neighbours told police that the accused often had quarrels over the issue and also used to beat them. A murder case has been registered against Hayat who managed to flee the scene after the crime.

Some 870 women were killed in the name of honour in Pakistan last year, according to figures provided by rights groups.