Teenage girl burned in 'honor killing' in Pakistan

In yet another case of Pakistan's "honor killing," a teenage girl was burned by a local jirga on April 29 in Galyat's Makol village for allegedly helping her friend elope.

Abbottabad police arrested 13 members of the jirga as well as the mother and brother of the young victim identified as Ambreen Riasat. District police chief Saeed Wazir told Reuters that the victim's mother and brother were also arrested since both were present during the jirga meeting and agreed to the council's sentence.

"The jirga then took her to an abandoned place outside the village and made her unconscious by injecting her with some drugs," narrated Wazir. "Then they seated the girl in a van in which the couple had escaped. They tied her hands to the seats and then poured petrol on her and the vehicle." Wazir added that he hasn't witnessed such a barbaric attack in his whole life.

According to local newspaper Dawn, district police officer Khurram Rasheed said the police recommended an exemplary punishment for those involved and that the case will be tried by Anti-Terrorism Court. "If proven guilty, the suspects could face the death sentence or life in prison," Rasheed said.

The police also said that the honor killing was ordered because the couple's elopement had caused irreparable damage to the village's reputation.

"A Jirga [tribal council] does not have any right to give such orders. Even the law does not support the tribal system; who are they to give orders to kill someone?" Ansar Burney, a leading Pakistani civil rights leader, told Al-Jazeera.

According to Al-Jazeera, the country's independent Human Rights Commission recorded nearly 1,100 women who were sentenced to death last year in honor killing.

These honor killings also take place in most parts of the Middle East and South Asia. Targeted mainly against women, honor killings are considered as a culture of violence against women.