QUETTA/KARACHI: Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Sunday confirmed the arrest of a man seen in a viral video, showing the murder of a man and a woman, following his directives to the provincial police.
“Slain persons are identified,” said CM Bugti in an X post, adding that the incident took place a few days before Eidul Adha.
A case under terrorism charges has been registered on behalf of the state, and the law will take its full course over the heinous crime, he asserted.
While many users on social media have claimed the killings were carried out in the name of honour, the authenticity of the video and the details of the incident have yet to be independently verified.
Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club separately, Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind said that the personnel from the provincial police and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) were present in the area.
He said that both families did not report the incident; however, the state became a complainant to take action against the culprits. He added that the bodies of the victims have not yet been recovered.
Rind said that the authorities sent data to the National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra) to identify people in the video, as well as the excise department was approached to trace the motorcycle via its number plate.
Sharing further details with the journalists, the spokesperson said that tribes and persons were also traced; however, the identities of those were not being disclosed “due to a strategy”.
In Pakistan, ‘honour’ killings continued to claim the lives of women throughout 2024.
According to the Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO) 2024 report ‘Mapping Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Pakistan’, 2,238 cases of domestic violence, 547 cases of honour killings and 5,339 cases of rape were reported across the country, while conviction rates stood below 2% for each of these crimes.
From January to November, a total of 346 people fell victim to ‘honour’ crimes in the country. The previous two years also saw a consistent rise in murders related to the so-called ‘honour’.
In 2023, the country saw a total of 490 ‘honour’ killing incidents taking place, while in 2022, as many as 590 people lost their lives to ‘honour’ killing.
