GUJRAT: A second incident of honour killing was reported in the district in the last couple of days as a woman was killed at village Kolian Habib of Kharian Sadar police on Monday.

Honour killing cases of the women are on the rise across the district where at least five women, including that of a lady doctor and matric student, have been murdered by none other than their kin during the last one month.

Regarding the fresh incident, the reports said Rukhsana Kausar, 31, had been living with her parents after having some dispute with her husband for quite some time. On Monday, her brother, Muhammad Tufail, 45, entered her room early in the morning and attempted to strangle her. Later, he killed her with repeated strokes of a club. He suspected that Rukhsana had relationship with some man.

Their parents told the police that Tufail had also hurled threats on them when they tried to rescue their daughter.

The suspect surrendered himself before the police and confessed to committing the murder. The woman’s body was sent to hospital for autopsy.

The police have lodged a case against the suspect on the report of police officer Gulzar Baig.

Earlier on Saturday, Fiza Aftab, a student of Class 10, a resident of Kalma Chowk area of Sara-i-Alamgir, was killed by her parents and brothers while a lady doctor was allegedly poisoned to death by her husband and brother-in-law on March 25.

A member of a civil society organisation said the ratio of murder incidents had declined in the district in the last few years but ironically, the incidents of killing women had been increasing gradually.

Mehr Attique, the spokesman for Gujrat police, said that in most of the honour-related cases, police officials had become the complainant due to Section 311 of the PPC to ensure punishment for the culprits. He said the suspects had also been arrested in most of honour killing cases.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2017