Pregnant Woman Stoned to Death by Family in Pakistan For Marrying For Love

Pregnant Woman Stoned to Death in Pakistan Buried

ISLAMABAD May 27, 2014 (AP)

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press

The husband of a pregnant woman stoned to death in Pakistan says her family had to bury her before dawn over the gruesome injuries she suffered.

Mohammad Iqbal says his family buried 25-year-old Farzana Parveen around 2 a.m. Wednesday in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province.

The burial came as police launched raids over the woman's killing Tuesday by dozens in a mob in front of a courthouse in the city of Lahore.

He says his wife's father and brothers hit her in the head with bricks, killing her.

Iqbal says his father-in-law had filed a criminal complaint against him, accusing him of abducting his daughter. Authorities say the father described the attack as an "honor killing."

Farzana Parveen, 25, was buried in the presence of some 100 mourners from her husband's family at around 2 a.m. in a village graveyard in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, her husband Mohammad Iqbal said.

Pregnant Pakistani woman beaten to death with bricks by relatives

By Sophia Saifi and Jethro Mullen, CNN

updated 9:15 PM EDT, Wed May 28, 2014

Source: CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Farzana Parveen, 25, was beaten with bricks in the city of Lahore
• Her family was unhappy she had married a man against their wishes
• She was on her way to court when she was attacked
• U.N. commissioner condemns killing; asks Pakistan to do more to protect women

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A pregnant woman is beaten to death by her relatives outside a court building. And for what? She eloped with the man she loved rather than marry the groom chosen by her family.

The terrible fate of Farzana Parveen, 25, is one shared by all too many women in Pakistan and elsewhere.

She was killed in the name of "honor," on the grounds her actions had brought shame on her family.

"I do not even wish to use the phrase 'honour killing': there is not the faintest vestige of honour in killing a woman in this way," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement condemning the killing.

Pillay called on Pakistan's government to work harder to stop such killings and protect women from violence.

According to a report published in April by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 869 women in the country were the victims of honor killings last year. And activists say the true number may be much higher.

Parveen's killing is all the more shocking because it was so public.

She was beaten to death with bricks close to the high court in the eastern city of Lahore by a group of about 20 people, including her brothers, father and cousin, police said.

One family member made a noose of rough cloth around her neck while her brothers smashed bricks into her skull, said Mushtaq Ahmed, a police official, citing the preliminary report into the killing. She was three months pregnant, he said.

So-called honor killings often originate from tribal traditions in Pakistan but are not a part of Islam. Although they're common in rural areas, Tuesday's attack in a public area of a big city was unusual.

Pregnant woman stoned by family members

Human rights activist speaks on violence

9-month-old fingerprinted and booked

Police officials said Parveen, who came from a village in Punjab, had refused to wed the cousin whom her family had selected for her, choosing instead to elope with a widower named Mohammad Iqbal.

The cousin intended for her husband was among the people who attacked her, police said.

Sudanese woman sentenced to death for her Christianity gives birth

'Barbaric' attack

The family had challenged Parveen's marriage to Iqbal in the courts, accusing him of abducting her.

The attack took place as she was on her way from her lawyer's office to the high court in Lahore, where she was expected to make a declaration that she had married Iqbal of her own volition.

One of Pakistan's leading newspapers, The Nation, expressed outrage over Parveen's killing.

"The familiar brand of barbaric 'justice' yet again triumphs over the written law of the land," it said in an editorial Wednesday. "Another case is settled outside the courts. Another woman, in search of justice, stoned to death, in the name of honor."

Farzana Bari, a human rights activist based in Islamabad, said the real number may be far higher than the Human Rights Commission's official count since many families don't report the crimes.

She said that in many cases, people outside the family don't step in to protect the victim.

"I've seen in the past people stand around and watch, and don't intervene because it is a private matter," she told CNN on Wednesday.

"I think honor killing is very much part of our culture. It is a cultural form of violence which is quite prevalent in certain parts of Pakistan."

Honor killings happen more often in rural, tribal areas, Bari said, but urban cases occur, too.

Since many cases are not reported, police have no record and rights groups that try to document what's happening must do so through media reports and incomplete data.

"There is no systematic information gathered in Pakistan that tells us the extent of the problem," she said.

Impunity said to encourage killers

And the killers often avoid prosecution.

Under an Islamic element of Pakistani law, known as the law of Diyat, the family of a victim is allowed to forgive the perpetrator, according to the human rights commission's report.

"Thus the victim's family usually is related to the perpetrator as well, and conveniently forgives their kin, absolving them of the murder," the report said. That possibility of impunity has "continued to encourage others to follow suit," it said.

Bari gave a similar picture and called for a change in Pakistan's laws to protect women and the vulnerable.

"Basically, the people have no fear of law because there is a culture of impunity and, as a result of that, people feel free and they can commit such acts outside the courts of justice," she said.

She blames such actions also on violent and extremist attitudes which, she said, drive people to act even if they are aware of the potential consequences.

"I think we must generally reflect on the sick mindset of the society," she said.

Police said they had arrested Parveen's father, whose name they gave only as Azeem. They said he had admitted to the killing and expressed no regret.

Search warrants are out for the other men accused of attacking her.

Why marrying for love should never mean death

Gunmen on motorbikes kill American doctor in Pakistan

Check out last 8 sentences of article (chilling), and check out caption under photo below.!  He now makes about $120.00/month.  Is this a lot or a little?  Did he make the same amount before the capital punishment moratorium?

Max Becherer for The New York Times

“It is not for the weak-hearted, because one moment a person is alive, the next he is gone," said Sabir Masih, a prison hangman describing his job

September 8, 2013
	Max Becherer for The New York Times Mr. Masih says he has executed about 200 prisoners, but he has been idle since a 2008 moratorium.

---

September 7, 2013

Hangman Lacks Work, and Pakistan Looks to Provide

By DECLAN WALSH and TAHA SIDDIQUI

LONDON — The prison hangman loitered in a Lahore graveyard, depressed and nursing a glass of vodka, wondering when he would get back to work.

Once he had plenty to keep him busy. Before the Pakistani government introduced a moratorium on capital punishment in 2008, the hangman, Sabir Masih, dispatched about 200 prisoners at the gallows over a period of three years.

But since then, he has been idle. Every day, he clocks into work at the Kot Lakhpat prison on the edge of Lahore. Every month, he collects his $120 salary. But mostly, he spends his time chatting with fellow Christians at the graveyard, where they furtively smoke and drink out of view of conservative Muslims, for whom alcohol is forbidden.

The moratorium, which was introduced by President Asif Ali Zardari, had drained his sense of purpose, he said.

“My job requires courage,” said Mr. Masih, speaking among the gravestones, in a maudlin tone. “It is not for the weak-hearted, because one moment a person is alive, the next he is gone.”

But good news for Mr. Masih — and bad news for the estimated 8,000 prisoners awaiting execution in Pakistan — may be near.

Since coming to power in June, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who favors capital punishment, announced a review of the moratorium. And with Mr. Zardari set to end his tenure as president on Sunday, executions could soon be reinstated.

“The moratorium was not legal,” said Sartaj Aziz, the adviser to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs. “We are debating whether to continue the stay on execution.”

Although the death penalty enjoys some popular support in Pakistan, the possibility that it will be reinstated has drawn sharp disapproval from an unlikely coalition of critics, including jihadist commanders and business leaders, albeit for entirely different reasons.

Human rights activists and the International Commission of Jurists argued that the manifest flaws in Pakistan’s tattered judicial system meant that the innocent, as well as the guilty, could go to the gallows.

In mid-August, one Taliban commander, Asmatullah Muawiya, threatened to attack members of Mr. Sharif’s party if the government carried out its plan to begin executing imprisoned jihadists.

The incongruity of a demand for clemency from a group that has killed thousands of civilians was not lost on some Pakistanis. Neither was the timing: Mr. Muawiya’s threat came one week before the prison authorities were set to hang two sectarian militants who had killed a Shiite doctor in 2004.

Mr. Zardari, who has used his powers to block nearly every hanging since 2008, let it be known in private that he would not relent while still in office, human rights campaigners said.

Under pressure, Mr. Sharif agreed to extend the moratorium, but only until Mr. Zardari leaves office. And he faces a clamor from other Pakistanis who favor a resumption of executions, either for reasons of religious conviction, or out of sheer frustration at the broken judicial system.

“The death penalty is part of the Shariah and the Holy Koran,” said Shaukat Javed, a former police chief of Punjab Province, where most death row prisoners are held. “Sooner or later, we will have to start executing inmates.”

Under Pakistani law, convicts sentenced to life imprisonment are often released after as little as 10 years. In some cases, the rich and influential can buy their way out of jail. And militants with the Taliban and other banned groups, who have killed thousands of civilians, are rarely convicted.

“We need to tighten the law before we can talk about abolishing the death penalty,” said Mr. Aziz, the government adviser. He added that the death penalty was still in use in India and the United States, two countries from which Pakistanis are often loath to accept lectures.

Before the freeze on executions, Pakistan was one of the world’s most enthusiastic proponents of capital punishment. About 27 offenses, including blasphemy and computer crimes, are punishable by execution. The 8,000 Pakistanis on death row account for about one-third of the world total, according to Amnesty International (although the group does not have figures for China, which is thought to carry out the highest number of executions).

Government officials say they might permanently extend the moratorium on human rights and business grounds — although critics believe they are equally influenced by fear of the Taliban.

In a joint letter to Mr. Sharif and others on Aug. 16, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists said that a resumption of executions would constitute “a major step back for human rights in the country.” Human rights groups have also been sharply critical about the quality of trial justice in Pakistan, and have raised concerns about the high number of teenagers on death row.

In Islamabad on Aug. 27, Ana Gomes, the head of a European Union trade delegation, warned that new hangings would represent a “major setback” to Pakistan’s chance of obtaining lucrative trade tariffs: a matter that is subject to a vote in European Parliament in the coming weeks.

For Mr. Zardari, the moratorium is personal and political. His father-in-law, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a one-time prime minister and father of Benazir Bhutto, was executed under the military dictator Gen. Muhammad Zia ul-Haq in 1979.

Since then, Mr. Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party has been staunchly opposed to capital punishment. But he has faced private pressure from the military to resume executions, resulting in one exception — that of Muhammad Hussain, a soldier convicted on charges of murdering a senior officer, who was hanged in November 2012 after a military trial.

In recent days, senior rights activists have reported rumors that the incoming president, Mamnoon Hussain, who is to be sworn in on Monday, would extend the freeze on executions.

Mr. Masih, the Lahore hangman, hopes that the activists are wrong. Back at the Lahore graveyard, he said that if hangings do resume, he anticipated a busy time clearing the backlog. “I might have to hang three or four in a day,” he said.

Although his father and grandfather had been hangmen, he said he found the job difficult at first. But then he learned “not to think about it.”

Musing on his job, he explained his technique for guiding condemned men through their last moments.

“After he is placed on the trap door, I tell him that if he needs to pray, he should do it in his heart,” he said. “Then I go to the lever and pull it.”

Declan Walsh reported from London, and Taha Siddiqui from Lahore, Pakistan. Waqar Gillani contributed reporting from Lahore.

9 Female Polio Workers Slain In Nigeria By Islamist Militants

Nigeria is one of the few nations where the polio disease remains endemic, along with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Malaysian:

World

Gunmen kill 9 polio health workers in Nigeria

February 08, 2013

A church is seen in Kainyabiri village on the banks of the River Nun in Nigeria's oil state of Bayelsa November 27, 2012. — Reuters pic

KANO, Nigeria, Feb 8 — Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead nine health workers who were administering polio vaccinations in two separate attacks in Nigeria’s main northern city of Kano today, police said.

No one claimed responsibility but Islamist militant group Boko Haram, a sect, which has condemned the use of Western medicine, has been blamed for carrying out a spate of assaults on security forces in the city in recent weeks.

Some influential Muslim leaders in Kano openly oppose polio vaccination, saying it is a conspiracy against Muslim children.

The attacks will hit efforts by global health organisations to clear Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north of polio; a virus that can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection.

It is the second time this year that polio workers have come under attack by Islamist militants after gunmen killed aid workers tackling the disease in Pakistan last month.

“Gunmen on bikes opened fire on a health centre in the Hotoro district killing seven, while an attack on Zaria Road area of the city claimed two lives,” said police spokesman Magaji Musa.

“They were working for the state government giving out polio vaccinations at the time of the attack,” Musa added.

Kano government banned motorbikes from carrying passengers last month after the Emir of Kano, one of the country’s most prominent leaders, was nearly killed when gunmen attacked his convoy, killing four of his aides.

Kano residents said soldiers had cordoned off the areas attacked and movement was being restricted in the city.

ISLAMIST THREAT

Boko Haram killed hundreds last year as part of its campaign to impose Islamic law, or sharia, on a country of 160 million split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

The group is seen as the most serious threat to the stability of Africa’s top energy producer, and Western governments fear the country could become a base for operations of al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups in the Sahara.

President Goodluck Jonathan has highlighted links between Boko Haram and Saharan Islamists and said that relationship justified his decision to join efforts by French and West African forces to fight militants in Mali last month.

In 2003, northern Nigeria’s Muslim leaders opposed polio vaccinations, saying they could cause infertility and AIDS.

Their campaign against the treatments was blamed for a resurgence of the disease in parts of Nigeria and other African countries previously declared polio-free.

Polio, a virus that attacks the nervous system, crippled thousands of people every year in rich nations until the 1950s. As a result of vaccination, it is now only endemic in three countries — Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, there were 121 new cases of polio in Nigeria last year, compared to 58 in Pakistan and 37 in Afghanistan.

“This is certainly a set back for polio eradication in Nigeria, but not a stop,” said Oyewale Tomori, a campaigner for polio eradication in Nigeria.

“The best we can do is to work harder and see the end of polio ... so their loss will not end as a useless sacrifice.”

At least 16 health workers taking part in polio vaccination drives were killed in attacks in Pakistan in December and January.

Local Taliban militants said they did not carry out those attacks although its leaders have repeatedly denounced the vaccination programme as a plot to sterilise people or spy on Muslims. — Reuters