Two Jirga members arrested in Pak for sentencing woman to death by stoning

Police in Pakistan have arrested two members of a Jirga, a council of elderly people, for sentencing a woman in Punjab province to death by stoning for allegedly eloping with a man and bearing his child out of wedlock.

According to the FIR, the council of elderly people comprising six persons held a meeting sometime back and sentenced the woman, a mother of nine, to death under the old custom of 'karo kari' in Muzaffargarh, some 400kms from Lahore.

Under this custom, a woman is stoned to death in the name of family honour. Police arrested two of the members and are on a look out for the remaining.

Police official Mehar Riaz Hussain said that the woman had eloped with Noor Shah, a man of her locality, and bore a child out of wedlock.

He said Shah was captured by some elders of the village who brought him back in June last year. The council awarded him a death sentence and he was subsequently killed.

Later, the woman was captured and the council declared that she would be stoned to death after giving birth to the child, the police official said.

The FIR against the Jirga members is registered under sections 310-A, 506-B (punishment for criminal intimidation, if threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, etc), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Hussain said the woman has been provided protection.

Honour killing, locally known as 'karo kari' is an act of murder due to the belief that the victim has brought dishonour upon the family. Often women are killed in the name of ?karo kari' which is believed to restore honour and reputation of a family.