KHANEWAL, Jan 4: Five members of a family were murdered in an honour killing incident here on Tuesday, police said, shortly before a law took effect making such crimes a capital offence.

Gunmen broke into the home of Munnawar Mai and opened fire, killing Mai, her husband Mukhtar and their two-year-old son as well as the mother and a brother of Mukhtar, police said.

Mai and Mukhtar had married in 2002, defying her parents' wish that she wed a cousin. Mai's family was still angry over her marriage, police chief Mohammad Jamil said. There appears to be an element of honour killing in this incident," he told Reuters.

Police have detained three people in connection with the attack. The incident happened shortly before President Gen Pervez Musharraf signed a bill into law making such honour killings a capital offence. -Reuters