Two Spanish sisters from a Pakistani family were killed by their in-laws and other family members because they decided to divorce their cousins, to whom they were forced to marry. Aneesa and Arooj Abbas, 21 and 24 respectively, returned to Pakistan from Spain on Thursday 19 May to divorce their husbands. But on Friday, May 20, they were first strangled and then shot in the village of Nathia in the Gujrat district of Pakistan. Local police spokesman Nuaman Hussain said the young women were killed out of “honor”. Sisters asking for divorce would have dishonored families. Azra Bibi’s mother has not yet filed a complaint about her daughters’ murders, saying she was kept away from the scene.
Police are currently investigating seven family members and two others, but all are currently on the run. According to reports from Dawn newspaper, it is believed to be Raja Haneef, the women’s uncle who was also Aneesa’s father-in-law, mother-in-law Farzana Haneef, her husband Atiq, husband of Arooj Hassan, her father-in-law Aurangzaib and two suspected unidentified persons. Honor killings are a very common practice in Pakistan: it is estimated that there have been more in the past year 400 crimes of this magnitude. In recent years, the Asian country has passed several regulations banning this practice, however, it is still very widespread and many cases often do not even reach the judicial authorities.
