BARCELONA: Police on Wednesday arrested the father of two Pakistani sisters living in Spain who were lured back to their homeland last year and killed by family members in a suspected honour killing.

The man, whose identity was not given, was arrested in Terrassa town where he had been living with his family for years, a police source said.

Investigators are looking to establish his connection to the alleged plot leading to the murder of 24-year-old Aneesa Abbas and her 21-year-old sister Arooj, who wanted to break off their forced marriages.

The pair were strangled and shot in Gujrat on May 20 last year. Six members of the girls’ family were arrested shortly after the murders, with one of their brothers and an uncle the two main suspects.

The family had “created a story to convince them to come to Pakistan for a couple of days”, they added.

According to El Pais newspaper, the family had told them their mother, who had travelled there several months earlier, was ill.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2023