Man kills his own sister for marrying a Christian in Pakistan
A Pakistani man who shot his sister for marrying a Christian said he had to kill her for dishonoring their family.
Rajhu, 24, had discovered that his 18-year-old sister Tasleem had married a Christian man in August. Rajhu had suffered taunts about his sister's marriage from his co-workers at the steel mill for several days until he decided to buy a pistol.
According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), Jehangir, Tasleem's spouse, had converted to Islam but her family still saw the act as dishonorable. Tasleem and Jehangir married secretly but returned home because she wanted her family to accept the union.
Rajhu waited for a week until he got angry and finally grabbed his gun.
"I could not let it go. It was all I could think about. I had to kill her," he told AP. "There was no choice," he added.
On Aug. 14, Rajhu walked up to Tasleem and shot her in the head. "There was no yelling, no shouting," said Rajhu. "I just shot her dead," he continued.
Even after Tasleem's death, her father, Mohammed Naseer Rajhu, is still angry with her for bringing shame to the family.
"My family is destroyed," he said. "Everything is destroyed only because of this shameful girl. Even after death I am destroyed because of her," he continued.
Naseer said that he discovered Tasleem's two mobile phones and some sleeping pills after her death. He believes that Tasleem used the sleeping pills to drug the family so she could go out to see Jehangir.
Babar Ali, one of the Rajhus' neighbors, expressed his approval of the heinous act.
"I am proud of this man that he has done the right thing, to kill her," said Ali. "We cannot allow anyone to marry outside our religion. He did the right thing," he added.
Christians living in the neighborhood are fearful of backlash against them because of the incident. A few weeks after the killing, five gunshots were fired into the homes of Christians although no one was hurt.
"We have been scared since the killing took place," said a neighbor named Shahzia Masih, "There are just a few houses of Christians here, but we have nowhere else to go," Mashi added.
Most of the victims of honor killings are women. According to AP, 1,184 died in Pakistan last year due to honor killings. Only 88 of the victims were men.
Last July, social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch was strangled by her brother Waseem for her controversial political posts published online. Waseem did not express any regret for the murder when he was arrested.
