File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP
A tribal jirga sentenced the pair to death after the woman left her previous husband and remarried.
Police on Thursday said they had arrested six men suspected of strangling a couple to death in the latest so-called honor killings to hit Pakistan, weeks after the government passed long-awaited legislation to combat the crime.
The victims had been married for a year and were living in Karachi’s eastern Malir district after the woman left her previous husband and fled her home in the city’s west.
A tribal jirga, which included her first husband and his relatives, sentenced the pair to death. Holding jirgas is illegal in Pakistan.
“They were strangled and buried in a graveyard by the jirga members,” said Javed Akbar, a senior police officer, adding that the men were arrested on Tuesday.
Around 1,000 Pakistan women fall victim to so-called honor killings each year—in which the victim, normally a woman, is killed by a relative for bringing shame to the family. Perpetrators have often walked free because of a legal loophole that allowed them to seek forgiveness for the crime from another family member, but earlier this month the government passed a law that mandates life imprisonment even if the attacker escapes capital punishment via a relative’s pardon.