July 18, 2025
By Iqra Manzoor
LAHORE
A young woman, in her mid-twenties, identified as Alia Bibi was shot dead in the courtyard of her home in the early hours of July 16, 2025. An FIR has been registered under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Dadiwala Police Station. The incident occurred in the Shamoni Khattak area of Lakki Marwat.
According to the FIR, the complainant Marwareeda Bibi—mother of the deceased—gave a statement saying that Alia was sleeping outside in the courtyard while she herself was asleep in an adjacent room. At around 2 AM, she heard gunshots and rushed outside to find her daughter critically injured. Alia succumbed to her injuries on the spot. Marwareeda further said that she heard the sound of a motorcycle fleeing the scene but has no information about the identity of the assailant.
The Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, Ameer Ullah, told Voicepk, that the cousin of the deceased may be the culprit.
“The woman was shot dead inside her home,” he said. “We have presented her mother in front of the magistrate (for a statement), and our investigation has revealed that her cousin did not like her being ‘open minded’, and killed her for it.”
“Alia Bibi’s father had already died, and they had been living at his brother’s house, i.e, Marwareed’s brother-in-law and his son,” he said, giving background information.
Meanwhile Alia Bibi was first married to Waseem, but the marriage did not work out and she was divorced. “After this her mother got her married to another man named Tahir in her village. But even that marriage failed and she separated from her second husband and began living with her mother.”
The IO added, “Allegedly, she was in a romantic relationship with someone which her mother did not like, so she told her brother-in-law’s son to talk to Alia and to convince her that this kind of act was insulting for the family. Following this, her cousin killed her. The accused has managed to escape and we are trying our best to nab him. We hope that he will be arrested soon.”
The IO added that Alia’s mother had not known about this. She just got to know that Alia’s cousin was the one who has killed her.
Honour killing in Pakistan
The case is being treated as an honour based killing – yet another incident of its kind, where an individual – mostly women – is murdered by relatives under the guise of preserving family “honour.”
According to the latest report released by the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO), ‘Mapping Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Pakistan 2024’, at least 547 cases of honour killing were reported across the country in 2024. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone accounted for 134 of those cases, but only two convictions were recorded.
The SSDO report further documents 32,617 GBV cases nationwide in 2024, including 5,339 cases of rape, 24,439 incidents of kidnapping/abduction, and 2,238 instances of domestic violence—figures that underscore the systemic nature of violence against women in Pakistan.
Police investigations into Alia Bibi’s murder are ongoing.