KARACHI, 15 September (IPS): Prominent civil rights activists in Pakistan are demanding that the government act against those responsible for the burial alive of five women in Balochistan, that politicians from the province have defended as an age-old custom.
On July 14, in the remote village of Babakot, three teenage girls and two older women were buried alive, allegedly on the orders of Abdul Sattar Umrani, brother of Sadiq Umrani, a provincial minister belonging to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
According to the version released by the Hong-Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the victims were taken to the vicinity of Babakot, where Umrani and his six companions dragged the three younger women out of his jeep and beat them up before shooting and seriously injuring them.
The girls were reported still alive when Umrani and his accomplices hurled them into a wide ditch and covered them with earth and stones.
AHRC said the two older women were an aunt and the mother of one of the girls. When they protested at the treatment meted out to the girls, they were also pushed into the ditch and buried alive.
Apparently the teenagers were being punished for asking to be allowed to marry men of their choice.
When the matter was raised in on Aug. 30 in parliament by opposition senator Yasmin Shah, who accused the government of turning a blind eye to the killings – a senator from Balochistan, Israrullah Zehri, retorted: “It is part of our custom”. Zehri was supported by Senator Jan Mohammad Jamali who said the incident was being ‘’unnecessarily politicised.’’
– These beasts in human form have no place in a modern society, said Pervez Hoodbhoy talking to IPS. An internationally-known peace activist, Hoodbhoy said senators Zehri and Jamali were “Neanderthals whose mental framework is that of cavemen”.
Pakistans constitution allows a woman aged 18 and above to marry of her own free will, but in practice women are often severely punished or even put to death for straying from tradition.
According to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, in 2007, as many as 636 deaths were attributable to “honour killings”. Many more such deaths may have gone unreported.
“Honour killings” were banned in 2004 and made punishable with the death sentence, but the law is weak and culprits rarely face justice.
Kilder: Inter Press Service og The Push Journal
