India Struggles To Stem Rise In 'Honor Killings'

July 27, 2010
Traditional Indian values are clashing with modern mores in northern India, where there has been a reported upsurge in so-called honor killings, the murders of young couples who elope in defiance of caste boundaries and their families' wishes.

n yet another case of suspected honour killing this time in Punjab, parents allegedly killed their 22-year-old daughter by electrocution over an 'affair'. The father-mother duo allegedly electrocuted their daughter and then attempted to burn alive her lover in Begowal in Punjab's Hoshiarpur District on Saturday (July 24).

Sher Singh and Paramjit Kaur allegedly locked their daughter's lover Gagandeep Singh in his car and set it ablaze at a secluded place. When he got out, he was attacked with sharp-edged weapons and left for dead, but managed to survive.

Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars. Yet there have been no prosecutions against the practice.

Like any 12-year-old, Jamelia was excited at the prospect of a plane journey and a long summer holiday in the sun. An avid reader, she had filled her suitcases with books and was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when her mother came for her. "She said, 'You know it's going to be today?' I didn't know exactly what it would entail but I knew something was going to be cut. I was made to believe it was genuinely part of our religion."

MURSHIDABAD: Her biggest fault was that she fell in love with a boy her parents didn't approve of. As a result, 16-year-old Maya Khan's throat was slit by her own cousin and her body flung away. On Saturday, police arrested her parents and the cousin for the murder.

The case of honour killing was reported from Talgram village in Murshidabad's Kandi block. Officers from Bharatpur police station had retrieved Maya's body on July 3 from the Maurakshi char. She was the daughter of Tajem Khan and Hanifa Bibi.

We waited two days for the police to dismantle the road blocks on the way to the village of Hamid Bhutta in Khairpur, Sindh. Mohammad Hanif was on the run after killing Nazir Ahmed and the officers were on alert. Once at the village, we saw Salma, Nazir's widow, staring into the black hole of feudal injustice into which her husband had disappeared.

Salma was being punished for a 'crime' committed nine years ago. In 2001, she had refused to marry Hanif, whom she was engaged to at birth.

Muzaffarnagar: In a suspected honour killing, a man involved in a relationship with a Dalit woman was stoned to death allegedly by her community members, police said on Thursday.

Forty eight-year-old widower Prem Singh of Thakur caste was in a relationship with the woman for the past few years, which was opposed by her community members, they said.

Amman - A Jordanian man confessed to killing his 16-year-old niece to save his family's "honour" after she was sexually assaulted, a judicial official said on Saturday.

The 43-year-old fired 30 machine-gun rounds in the direction of the girl on Friday, killing her instantly, at Deir Alla, west of the capital Amman, said the official who requested anonymity.

Hoshiarpur (Punjab): A 20-year-old youth allegedly strangulated her teenaged sister and threw her body in a canal in a suspected case of honour killing in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab.
During sustained interrogation, Mani Pratap Kaushal confessed he had strangulated his sister Kanchan with an electric wire as he doubted her character, SSP Rakesh Aggarwal told mediapersons in Hoshiarpur today.

Mani, a resident of village Kitna, told police he had killed his sister, aged 16, for having an affair which had incensed the family, Aggarwal said.

July 23 (IANS) In a suspected case of honour killing, a youth was stabbed to death in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district allegedly by the father and brother of a girl with whom he was in a relationship, police said Friday.
Lal Singh, the girl’s father, has been arrested along with his son Rinku. The duo admitted that they had killed Mithun, 20, a graduation student, to safeguard the family’s honour.

Mithun’s body was recovered Friday morning in Kajipura village, some 400 km from Lucknow.