Pakistani police have launched an investigation following the senseless murder of two teenage girls who were seen kissing a man in footage that went viral on the internet.
The two girls, aged 16 and 18, were last spotted a week ago in a strongly conservative and ravaged by war area in North Warizistan in what authorities suspect may have been an “honor killing”.
According to police, the video which they believe was the cause for the killing of the teenagers was filmed one year ago but had recently been uploaded to the web.
“The females were sisters, identified as Jasima Bibi and Saeeda Bibi,” North Waziristan police chief Shafiullah Gandapur noted, adding that the family have had to move due to a military operation against militants in their town.
According to chief Gandapur, the man who was kissing the girls in the video was brought under arrest last Monday together with another person who is thought to have uploaded the video.
However, police are of the mind that the killer fled to the city of Karachi, which is the largest city in Pakistan.
Authorities have also arrested the father and uncle of the girls due to suspicions that they may be hiding evidence regarding the murders.
The murders are also the first high-profile criminal case to be investigated by police in the formerly autonomous tribal region, where an extremely conservative way of life poses a big challenge for authorities.
The police were given jurisdiction to the area back in 2018, which ended more than a 100-year autonomous rule in a part of the country used by al Qaeda and the Taliban to launch attacks on their enemies.
According to police, the relatives of the girls, as well as locals, did not want the case to be registered because of “local traditions”, so the complainant in the case became the police itself.
Human rights groups have said that thousands of cases of violence against women thought to have “damaged” family honor are reported in the country every year and many more go unreported.
In 2016, the country of Pakistan implemented legislation to protect against “honor killings”.
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Source: Independent
