April 15, 2026
By Rehan Piracha & Xari Jalil
LAHORE
In the dead of the night in the Burdo Chandio village of Tando Masti Khan, a locality in Sindh’s Khairpur district, 22-year-old Khalida Chandio was dragged in front of an adhoc jirgah to face a verdict already decided by the men of her community. By dawn, she was dead.
Accused of ‘karo kari’, or dishonour, a label used to justify killings in the name of so-called ‘honour’, Khalida, whose real name was Rubina, was brought in front of her elders, including her uncles – both paternal and materbnal. It was her maternal uncle who pulled the trigger leaving her to die then and there. All around there were others too who watched and filmed the gruesome scene but not one person intervened to stop the murder.
A killing that unfolded in plain sight
According to Shahnaz Shaikh, a social worker based in Khairpur city, Khalida had already been married for six years. She had no children.
“As it goes, in villages there are many people who come to visit, there was a man namely Saddam Chandio who used to visit some people and she had become acquainted with him. On Friday night, at around midnight she left with him,” said Shahnaz. “However when Saddam brought her to his cousin’s house, they refused to accept her and said they should return her to her family. On the other side, Khalida’s own family had realized that she was not in her bed and began searching for her. They later realized that she had left with Saddam. By the time they brought her back, the waderas of the area were already in knowledge of the incident.”
The fuedal lord of the area including one Asghar Chaudhry (alias ‘Changa’) had ordered an execution by then; they directly gave the order to the girl’s maternal uncle Qaiser Chandio and told him that she was now ‘tainted’ and must be killed as kari.
“She left at 12 and returned at 3 am, and within this time the execution had been ordered by the wadera led jirgah,” said Shahnaz. “And while they executed the girl labelling her kari, what about the karo (tainted male)? Is it only the girl who is to be blamed? The entire village was watching this incident, including the waderas of the area. But the karo’s family was the one holding the girl so that she would be shot.”
Shahnaz also condemned the way the girl had been given directly back to the family – it was definite that they would kill her. Instead she says, they should have returned her to the SSP and in a legal way she should have been made to appear in court next day to give a statement.
A First Information Report (FIR No. 82/2026), was registered at Tando Masti police station. The FIR states that the incident took place at around 3:30 a.m. on April 10, when police was on patrol and received word: a woman was being killed. When they rushed to the scene, they found armed men with pistols drawn, and Khalida at their mercy. Among them was her uncle, Wali Muhammad Chandio, allegedly inciting the others, accusing her of illicit relations. The police say they tried to stop the killing, but failed. However two suspects have been arrested.
Arrests, but questions remain
A press statement by the SSP office said that police took action within a day, arresting both the main suspects along with the weapon – the pistol.
Qaiser Chandio and Wali Muhammad Chandio, the uncles of Khalida were both arrested along with the weapon. Police say that raids are still ongoing. Officials insist action was taken swiftly. But local reporters say that a wider net of suspects, with up to 19 individuals are detained — most of them linked to the jirgah that ordered the killing.
Meanwhile after the arrest of three key accused involved in the incident, SSP Khairpur, Amir Saud Magsi, announced that the footage of the incident had gone viral on social media, causing unrest across the province. He vowed to punish those involved in the jirgah.
He said that the State was the complainant in the FIR. “There should be no leeway given to the criminals involved, or any value assigned to any statement by the perpetrator,” he said. He said the police was trying to identify the criminals according to the video.
“Such incidents are contrary to the Sufi ideology of the land of Sindh,” said the Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar. “No leniency should be shown to the arrested suspects and their accomplices, and they should be brought to justice.”
For activists, the horror lies not only in the killing — but in how it unfolded.
“The barbarity has increased to the point where perpetrators go live while killing women,” said academic and activist Amar Sindhu while speaking to Voicepk. “Such people have neither fear of law nor humanity.”
She also expressed anger and condemned the reports of homes belonging to the accused being demolished as a result — calling it collective punishment that harms innocent women and children of the family.
“That, too, is barbarity,” she said.
Legal experts point out that Khalida’s killing is not an isolated act, but part of a deeper, entrenched system. Human rights lawyer Imdad Hyder Solangi points to a toxic intersection: tribal authority, patriarchal norms, and weak law enforcement.
“In such a system, women are treated as property,” he said. “Accusations of karo kari are often used as a pretext — especially in property disputes — to deny women their rights.”
Judicial delays, lack of deterrence, and poor policing, he argues, allow such violence to persist — and even escalate.
Father of girl
Mohammad Ramzan, father of the deceased Khalida Chandio, made serious allegations against the police after the video went viral. He said that the SHO Tando Masti had demanded th girl’s family to give him Rs 100,000, otherwise a case would be filed against them. He asked he other party to give Rs 5 lakh and added that the SHO took money from both and filed a government case himself.
🧵Mohammad Ramzan, father of the Khalida who was killed after being declared ‘kari’ (dishonourable), made serious allegations against the SHO Tando Masti saying that he took 100,000 from him and 500,000 from the other party. 1/2 #Khairpur case #KhalidaChandio pic.twitter.com/ToW9SEf9KC
— Xari Jalil (@xarijalil) April 15, 2026
“We sold our sheep and goats and gave the money to the police,” he said. “Police took money from the hands of the local wadera Chaudhry Asghar Hondal. Now the police are committing atrocities by demolishing our house, authorities should take notice.”
The father’s appeal has also gone viral on social media.
Condemnation — and a call for accountability
Government officials have condemned the killing as well. Sindh Home and Law Minister Zia-ul-Hassan Lanjar called it a violation of the province’s Sufi traditions, promising no leniency.
Women Development Minister Shaheena Sher Ali described it as “deeply tragic and unacceptable,” noting that the silence of onlookers was as disturbing as the act itself.
Her directive was clear: pursue not only the killers, but all who stood by and allowed it to happen.
Have incidents of honour based killing gone down over the past few years or have they increased? Shahnaz says that incidents have increased.
“These karo kari killings are actually paying these waderas,” she said. “They can end up collecting upto Rs40 lakh as fine for the girl’s act. The girl’s family is shamed into silence. They are told it is better if they do not discuss the issue as their girl was ‘tainted’.