Rights groups fear for lives of Sindhi couple

The lives of a young couple in rural Sindh, who wed each other against the wishes of their respective tribes, might be in danger unless the authorities act swiftly to protect them from their irate kin, according to a rights activist. "Rights groups have petitioned the Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court to take sou moto [as a matter of extreme urgency] notice of events," Nadia Haroon, the Sindh programme coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), told IRIN from the southern port city of Karachi. Shaista Almani and her husband, Balkhsher Mahar, fled their native rural area of Ghotki, near the town of Sukkur, in late August, fearing for their lives, seeking refuge first in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and then in the United Arab Emirates state of Dubai. The couple had returned to Ghotki on 25 October after simmering tension between the Almani and Mahar tribes threatened to escalate into full-blown conflict, The News, a leading English-language broadsheet, reported on Tuesday. It had been said that the couple had been compelled to return to avert a possible clash between their two tribes, it added. "We don’t really know if they were brought back forcibly, or if they came back voluntarily. They could have received some threats, or been told that their families were in danger," Haroon said, adding that both Shaista and Balkhsher had reportedly been placed in the custody of their respective tribal heads. On Monday, a Ghotki lower-court judge had directed the town’s District Police Officer (DPO) to produce Shaista before the court and ordered arrangements to be made to ensure her safety after a petition was filed by Ali Hassan, the vice-chairman of the HRCP’s Sindh chapter, seeking the woman’s safety, The News reported. Representatives from the DPO’s office had later told the court that the woman was not present in the house she was supposed to have been kept in, the newspaper added. A jirga (gathering of tribal elders) was supposed to have been held on 26 October to decide on the couple's fate, but was postponed until Thursday in response to continuous pressure from civil rights groups, Haroon said. "Also, we’ve found out from sources that the DPO is rumoured to be part of that jirga," she added, noting that other police officials had privately confirmed this to be so. In 2002, karo kari, a centuries-old tradition that condones honour killings, claimed the lives of 340 people, including 186 women, in Sindh, according to an HRCP report released early this year. Dr Ishrat-ul-Abad, the Sindh governor, held a high-level meeting in late August attended by senior civil servants and police officials to finalise amendments in the Pakistan Penal Code aimed at "discouraging" the "practice of honour killings", The Nation, another leading Pakistani English-language broadsheet, reported. Among the punishments prescribed under the amendments were death, or imprisonment for 25 years for offenders involved in the practice. The death penalty would also apply to those who abetted, encouraged, or induced the commission of such a murder, or recognised such murders as honour killings, the newspaper reported.