Author: Reuters
Publication: Khaleej Times
Date: January 9, 2007
A Pakistani fruit vendor shot dead his sister
because she had a job and was studying for a university degree, a police official
in conservative North West Frontier Province said.
Naheeda Bibi, 22, was shot three times by
her brother on Sunday near her village outside Mansehra city, as she went
to catch a bus to return to Rawalpindi where she studied and worked.
"The brother, Gul Shahzad, has no remorse
and says she defied him and her father," local police officer Mohammad
Afzal told Reuters by telephone.
"He kept on screaming after he surrendered
to the police that she met the destiny willed for her by God," he said.
The girl's mother has lodged a report with
police accusing her husband and son of killing Naheeda in revenge for her
getting a higher education and working in Rawalpindi.
The girl had returned home for the Eid holidays,
as had her brother who works as a fruit vendor in Lahore.
Afzal quoted the grieving mother as saying
that the victim was a pious, God-fearing girl who wanted to become a teacher.
"She was doing her BA in English and
taught at a language institute and lived in a hostel in the same city where
her father worked," he said late on Monday.
Many Pakistani women are killed each year
by relatives claiming they had violated a family code of honour. While feudal
and tribal customs prevail in many areas of rural Pakistan, attitudes are
ultra-conservative in isolated places like Mansehra.
