Teenage girl, male cousin murdered in Pakistan ‘honour killing’

Two brothers murdered their teenaged sister and a male cousin in an ‘honour killing’ in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday

Two brothers murdered their teenaged sister and a male cousin in an ‘honour killing’ in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday.

Pakistani civil society activists carry placards during a protest in Islamabad on July 18, 2016 against the murder of social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch by her own brother. (AFP)

Police said that the brothers suspected that their 15-year-old sister was in love with the 27-year-old cousin who was already married and had four children.

They first shot dead the cousin while he was working in a field and later went home to gun down their sister. After the double murder they fled the area.

The incident occurred in the Laray area in the remote northern district of Shangla where police lodged an FIR and launched a manhunt to arrest the killers.

The killers were upset after they reported the matter to local elders who a few days ago decided that the two should be married.

Shangla is one the most impoverished and remote mountain districts where a strict code of so-called honour is followed in matters regarding women.

They are seldom allowed to marry of their free will and even an innocent act of photography or video can put them in danger.

A few years ago a group of girls were killed after a video of them dancing during a marriage was leaked.