On 1st September, a tribal woman belonging to the Alkani tribe in Rajanpur district of Pakistan’s Punjab province was stoned to death after being brutally tortured for alleged adultery. As per the reports, the victim’s husband had accused her of adultery. He and his two brothers tied the victim to a tree and stoned her to death after brutally torturing her. They crushed her skull with stones and clubs, the reports said.
As per the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, the accused escaped the scene after killing her. Chucha Border Military Police has filed an FIR in the matter under Sections 302 (murder), 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), and 311 (punishment for murder if act taking place to facilitate the commission of a crime) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Quoting some unnamed sources, the woman in her early 20s was subjected to tribal rituals of Aus (trial by fire) and Auf (trial by water) around two years ago. She completed Aus without getting injured to prove her innocence.
The honour killing in the Punjab province of Pakistan was not an isolated incident. According to Human Rights Activists, around 1,000 women are killed yearly in the name of “honour” in Pakistan, mostly for marrying against the family’s will or having an affair. In most of the cases, close family members are accused and often even manage to escape penalties.