The Pakistan Human Rights Commission (HRCP) recorded at least 405 honor murders across the country in 2024. Most of the victims are women, often killed by parents claiming to defend the honor of the family.
While hundreds of so-called killings of honor are reported in Pakistan each year, often with little public or legal response, the video of a woman and a man led to a region remote by a group of men to kill has struck a nerve.
A viral video of the “killer of honor” of a woman and a man in Balutchistan sparked national indignation, which caused a meticulous examination of longtime tribal codes and calls for justice in a country where such murders often pass in silence.
The authorities have carried out at least 16 arrests in the case so far.
The video shows that the woman, Bano Bibi, gave a copy of the Holy Quran by a man identified by the police as his brother. “Come and walk seven steps with me, after that, you can shoot me,” she said, and she moves forward a few feet and stops with her back to men.
Brother, Jalal Satakzai, then pulls him three times and she collapses. A few seconds later, he pulls and kills the man, Ehsanullah Samalani.
Once the video of the murders in Balutchistan has become viral, it provoked an action and a condemnation of the government quickly of politicians, groups for the defense of rights and religious.
Civil rights lawyer Jibran Nasir, however, said the government’s response concerned performance more than justice.
“The crime occurred months ago, not in secrecy but near a provincial capital, but no one acted until 240 million witnessed the camera murder,” he said.
“It is not an answer to a crime. It is a response at a viral moment.”
Read: Brutal “ Honor Killing ‘taken in video sparks nationwide indignation
Police arrested 16 people in the Balutchistan Nasirabad district, including a tribal chief and the mother of the woman.
The mother, Gul Jan Bibi, said that the murders had been carried out by former premises on the basis of “secular Baloutques traditions”, and not on the orders of the tribal chief.
“We have committed no sin,” she said in a video press release that has also become viral. “Bano and Ehsan were killed according to our customs.”
She said that her daughter, who had three sons and two daughters, had fled with Ehsan and returned after 25 days.
Bano and Ehsan were killed according to our customs
Mother of the victim
Police said Bano’s younger brother, who shot the couple, stay in freedom.
The chief minister of Balutchistan, Sarfraz Bugti, said that it was a “test” case and promised to dismantle the illegal tribal courts operating outside the law.
Police had previously declared that a Jirga, an informal tribal council which made extrajudicial decisions, had ordered the murders.
#Justiceforcouple
The video sparked online conviction, with hashtags like #justiceforcuple and #Honourkilling Trend.
Pakistan Ulema Council, a body of religious researchers, described the murders as “non -Islamic” and urged the accusations of terrorism against the people involved.
Dozens of civil society members and rights activists organized a demonstration on Saturday in the provincial capital Quetta, demanding justice and the end of parallel justice systems.
“Virality is a double -edged sword,” said Arsalan Khan, a cultural anthropologist and professor who studies gender and masculinity.
“He can put pressure on the state in action, but the public spectacle can also serve as a strategy to restore Ghairat, or a family honor perceived in the eyes of the community.”
The government prohibited the murders of honor in 2016 after the murder of the Social Star Qandeel Baloch, closing a escape that allowed the authors to free themselves if they were forgiven by family members. Rights defense groups claim that the application remains low, especially in rural areas where tribal advice still has an influence.
“In a country where conviction rates often fall to a figure, the visibility – and the tumult it brings – presents its advantages,” said constitutional lawyer Asad Rahim Khan.
Find out more: Three incident killed linked to the honor in Bajaur
“He shakes a complacent state that continues to tolerate jirgas in areas beyond his brief.”
Khan said that, rather than enforcing the law, the government spent last year weakening the judiciary and even considering rekindling the jirgas in ancient tribal areas.
“It is an executive inaction, very shameful towards the women of Balutchistan,” said Khan.
In recent months, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has asked higher ministers to assess the proposals aimed at relaunching Jirgas in the former tribal districts of Pakistan, including potential commitment with tribal elders and Afghan authorities.
The Prime Minister’s office and the Minister of Pakistan did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Viral can you forget?
The Balutchistan murders were raised in the Senate, where the Human Rights Committee condemned the murders and called for action against those who summoned Jirga. Legislators also warned that the impunity of parallel justice systems could encourage similar violence.
Activists and analysts say, however, that indignation is unlikely to be maintained.
“There is noise now, but as always, it will fade,” said Jalila Haider, a lawyer for human rights in Quetta.
“In many areas, there is no brief law, no application. Only silence.”
Haider said the killings underline the state’s failure to protect citizens in regions under regions like Balutchistan, where tribal power structures fill the void left by the courts and the police absent.
“It is not enough to condemn Jirgas,” said Haider.
“The real question is: why does the state allow them to exist in the first place?”
