As reported by local journalist Saarang Mastoi, Fatima Fauzia (16) and Jannat Bibi (18) were beaten, shot,
and buried alive on the night of July 14th (2008). The crime occurred in Babakot, Pakistan. Babakot is a
small village of farmers and sheepherders in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Fatima and Jannat took a taxi
to see there boyfriends that night. The girls were talking in the back of the taxi about their plans to meet
the boys at a local restaurant and then go to a civil court to marry them.
The taxi driver dropped the girls off then drove back to their village to inform their family members about
the secret plans he had overheard in the back of his taxi. The girls’ plot to elope came after their male relatives and tribal elders refused them permission to marry the boys because they were from another tribe.
The families of the girls belong to the wealthy feudal Umrani tribe in Balochistan. The uncle of one of the girls is a minister in the Balochistan provincial government and deputy leader of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
In 2004, President Pervez Musharraf outlawed "honor killings". Violators of this law earn the death penalty.
But the law is impossible to enforce because the custom has been practiced for hundreds of years. It is protected by powerful feudal lords and tribal elders.
Click here for more information on honor killings in Pakistan
