August 5, 2025
By Kaleem Ullah
LAHORE
In yet another incident of honour killing, a teenage girl was shot dead by her uncle in the Battagram area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The incident took place on Monday night in the Mirani area of Battagram.
According to the FIR, the accused, Shaheen, confessed to killing her, however later his brother gave a conflicting statement.
In the FIR he says, that for the past two days, he had been staying at his brother’s house to take care of his family, while his brother was away working at a poultry farm in the Ajmiray area of Nowshera.
“I was sleeping in one of the rooms, while my niece Zahida Bibi (17) was sleeping with her mother and stepmother in another room,” he said. “Around 2 AM, I heard the sound of the gate opening and woke up. I used a flashlight to look towards the gate and saw my niece Zahida Bibi going out with three individuals. I then retrieved the weapon kept at home and fired at them, but the cartridge emptied. My sister-in-law, Zahida Bibi’s mother then gave me a pistol, and I followed them and opened fire again. This resulted in Zahida being injured, which led to her death, while another person named Farman was injured. The other two individuals fled the scene. I intentionally killed my niece in the name of honour and I informed a relative who then contacted the police.”
But Zahida Bibi’s other uncle, Aman Ullah, gave another statement to Voicepk, stating that Shaheen was mentally ill, and doctors had advised the family to keep him away from stress. He claimed the FIR statement was entirely false.
“Three individuals forcibly entered our house and tried to abduct Zahida from her room,” says Aman Ullah, 35. “She screamed, which woke up my brother. He intervened and grabbed her from their clutches. As a result one of the assailants opened fire, hitting both Zahida and one of the abductors, resulting in her death and injuring the other.”
“This was a case of robbery and attempted abduction, not honour based killing,” he added.
Meanwhile Battagram police PRO Ghulam Nabi told Voicepk that the accused had been arrested, and the weapon used in the crime had been recovered. He said the investigation was ongoing.
The case was registered at the Battagram City Police Station under Sections 302 (murder), 324 (attempted murder), and Section 311 of the Honour Killing Act (Ta’zir after waiver, or compounding of the right of qisas in intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), along with Section 15 of the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Arms Act.
An increase in honour based killings?
The incident highlights the alarming rise in honour killings and violence against women. Recently, a man and a woman in Quetta’s Degari area were also killed on the orders of a tribal jirga ahead of Eidul Azha, sparking nationwide outrage and prompting the Balochistan government to arrest at least 14 suspects.
Despite the existence of laws, such crimes persist and criminals roam freely. According to the 2024 State of Human Rights report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 178 women were killed in Punjab alone in the name of ‘honour’ in 2024. The number stood at 149 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 67 in Balochistan, and 134 in Sindh.
Rukhshanda Naz, Ombudsperson of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while speaking to Voicepk, emphasized that honour-related crimes cannot be eliminated without strong institutional implementation.
“Legislative measures and amendments are ineffective unless backed by proper infrastructure. Duty bearers must be aware and sensitized about these laws. While the judiciary and police have undergone some training, enforcement remains inconsistent due to deep-rooted patriarchal values,” she said.
“Laws must deter such crimes and be implemented at every level. Moreover, societal mindsets need to change—through curriculum reform and widespread awareness programs,” she concluded.