Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistani authorities have arrested at least 13 individuals, including a tribal leader, in connection with the killing of a couple in the southwestern province of Balochistan.
The arrests followed nationwide outrage over a video depicting the murders went viral on social media, with many calling it yet another case of “honour killing” – a phenomenon reported from across South Asia.
The first information report (FIR) filed by the police on Monday identifies the couple as Bano Bibi and her husband Ehsan Ullah, and says they were likely killed in May near Balochistan’s capital Quetta.
Honour killings, mainly reported from Pakistan and India, often arise from perceived family, tribal or caste dishonour, especially in love marriages, in which the two partners marry without the consent of their families or tribe, or elope. Many such killings go unreported.
Balochistan police official Syed Suboor Agha told Al Jazeera they are investigating the matter and are likely to make more arrests, including Bano’s brother, who is suspected of the murders and “is still at large”.
The viral videos of the killings show a group of armed men gathered around vehicles in a deserted area. Bano is ordered by the crowd to stand away from the vehicles as the couple is pumped with bullets, even on their motionless bodies lying bleeding on the sand.
The FIR names eight suspects while also listing 15 other unidentified suspects involved in the incident.
According to the FIR, the couple was allegedly brought before local tribal leader Sardar Sherbaz Khan, who declared them guilty of engaging in an “immoral relationship” and ordered that they be killed.
‘Tyranny of medieval practices’
Pakistan has a dismal record on “honour killings” and other forms of violence against women.
According to Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO), an Islamabad-based independent organisation, more than 32,000 cases of gender-based violence were reported nationwide in 2024, including 547 instances of “honour killings” – 32 of them in Balochistan and only one resulting in conviction.
Harris Khalique, general secretary of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the country’s leading rights watchdog, said the killings in the name of honour confirm the “tyranny of medieval practices” still entrenched in many parts of Pakistan.
“The state, instead of establishing the rule of law and ensure the right to life of its citizens, has protected the tribal chiefs and feudal lords who guard such practices to perpetuate their power over local people and resources,” Khalique told Al Jazeera.
Mineral-rich Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least populous province, has also witnessed decades of conflict between the government and ethnic Baloch separatists, who demand secession from the country.
Rights activist Sammi Deen Baloch, also a member of a Baloch women’s rights group, said killing of women has become “a matter of routine” in the province.
“In Balochistan, women are murdered for love, disappeared for protest, and buried under layers of tribal authority and state-backed silence. These are not isolated tragedies. They are the cost of a system designed to keep Balochistan obedient, and its women expendable,” she told Al Jazeera.
Baloch said the government would not have acted on the murders had the video not gone viral.
“Baloch women are trapped between two forms of violence: the brutality of tribal patriarchy, and the cold repression of the state. One kills in silence, the other kills in the name of law,” she said.
“The state’s refusal to democratise Balochistan isn’t accidental. It is policy. By outsourcing governance to feudal strongmen, the state keeps the region controlled, its women disposable, and its dissent criminal.”