The Independent
Indian teen whose body was found hanging off bridge was killed by her family for wearing jeans, says report
Maroosha Muzaffar
Tue, July 27, 2021, 7:57 AM
File: Political activists hold placards and a cut-out of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi during a protest condemning the alleged gang-rape and murder of a teenaged woman at Hathras in Uttar Pradesh state (AFP via Getty Images)
A 17-year-old girl from India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state was killed last week and her body dumped on a river bridge, allegedly by members of her extended family who were enraged at her choice of clothes.
The grandfather and uncles of the teenager, identified as Neha Paswan, allegedly beat her severely with sticks and rods after she went against their diktat and continued to wear jeans — clothing her family considered inappropriate.
Reports in Indian media outlets said the family repeatedly objected to her “western clothes,” exposing the deep roots of patriarchy in the country’s social fabric.
Shakuntala Devi, the teen’s mother, was quoted by the BBC as saying that the teen was adamant about wearing jeans despite strong objections from her grandparents.
“She had kept a day-long religious fast. In the evening, she put on a pair of jeans and a top and performed her rituals. When her grandparents objected to her attire, Neha retorted that jeans were made to be worn and that she would wear it,” Ms Devi said.
This led to an argument that escalated to severe violence against the teen, according to the BBC. The girl’s grandparents and other relatives reportedly beat her unconscious.
Police said the grandfather and two of her uncles refused to let Ms Devi accompany them to the local district hospital. They instead allegedly took the help of a local auto-rickshaw driver to dispose of the body.
“They wouldn’t let me accompany them so I alerted my relatives who went to the district hospital looking for her but couldn’t find her,” Ms Devi was quoted as saying by the BBC.
The next morning, Ms Devi and her other relatives received news that a girl’s body was dangling from a bridge over the Gandak river that flows through the region, and upon inspection it was found to be of her daughter’s.
Police officials said the men had tried to throw the body over the bridge, but it got stuck instead.
Police registered a case of murder and destruction of evidence against 10 people, including the girl’s aunts and cousins, according to local reports.
So far, authorities have arrested four people including the grandfather, two uncles and the auto-rickshaw driver. A search is on for the others.
The girl received serious head injuries when she was beaten up, leading to her death, the Indian Express quoted senior police official Yash Tripathi as saying.
The postmortem report also suggested she had received a “severe injury and fracture in the head (sic)”.
Her extended family — including her uncles and grandfather — had been persistent in objecting to the girl’s routine activities and life choices.
They had told her to quit school and admonished her for not wearing traditional Indian clothing.
The teen’s father Amarnath Paswan, who had been living in Ludhiana city in Punjab state where he worked as a construction site labourer — told the media that he laboured to send her to school.
This is not the first time a gruesome crime of this nature was committed.
A 20-year-old girl was beaten by her father for running away from her abusive in-laws in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state last month. In another shocking incident, two girls were beaten up by their family members for talking on mobile phones in the state’s Dhar district.
Several social media users paid tributes to the deceased. One tweeted: “Sorry Neha we let you down - this is a blot on us as society!”
In the last four years, crimes against women have increased in Uttar Pradesh by over 66 per cent, according to the latest available data.
Women in India mostly bear the brunt of these so-called “honour killings,” carried out by family members based on the belief that their actions have brought dishonour on their community.
A 2018 report says that more than 300 cases of honour killings were reported across the country in the last three years.
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HONOR KILLINGS
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Re: HONOR KILLINGS
US-born girl shot dead by father in Quetta over TikTok videos: police
Reuters | Abdullah Zehri Published January 29, 2025
A man who recently brought his family back to Quetta from the United States on Wednesday confessed to shooting his teenage daughter dead, motivated by his disapproval of her TikTok content, according to the police.
The shooting happened on a street in Quetta on Monday night. The suspect initially said that unidentified gunmen shot and killed his American-born 15-year-old daughter before he confessed to the crime, Gawalmandi Station House Officer (SHO) Babar Baloch said.
“Our investigation so far has found that the family had an objection to her dressing, lifestyle and social gathering,” Serious Crimes Investigation Wing (SCIW) Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zohaib Mohsin said.
“We have her phone. It is locked,” he told Reuters. “We are probing all aspects, including ‘honour’ killing.”
The family recently returned to Balochistan after having lived in the US for about 25 years, SHO Baloch said. He said that the suspect has US citizenship, adding that the suspect told him the girl began creating “objectionable” content on TikTok when she lived in the US.
The suspect told police that she continued to share videos on the platform after returning to Pakistan.
Baloch said the suspect’s brother-in-law was also arrested in connection with the killing, while police said they had charged the suspect with the murder.
Police did not offer proof of Haq’s US citizenship except for the suspect’s own testimony and declined to say whether the US embassy had been informed of the incident.
A press release by the SCIW said the police was alerted about the incident on Monday night, following which the suspect filed a case at the Gawalmandi Police Station under Pakistan Penal Code Section 302 (intentional murder).
It added that the suspect and his brother-in-law confessed to the crime when they were included in the investigation. It further said the suspect had arrived with his daughter in Lahore from New York on Jan 15 and in Quetta on Jan 22.
His family declined to respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
More than 54 million people use TikTok in Pakistan, with authorities blocking the video-sharing app several times in recent years over content moderation.
Authorities take issue with what they term “obscene content” on the social media platform, which has lately started complying with requests to remove certain content.
Data from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan showed that in 2024, ‘honour’ killings continued to be a serious issue across Pakistan, with particularly high figures in Sindh and Punjab. From January to November, a total of 346 people fell victim to ‘honour’ crimes in the country.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1888479/us-bo ... eos-police
Reuters | Abdullah Zehri Published January 29, 2025
A man who recently brought his family back to Quetta from the United States on Wednesday confessed to shooting his teenage daughter dead, motivated by his disapproval of her TikTok content, according to the police.
The shooting happened on a street in Quetta on Monday night. The suspect initially said that unidentified gunmen shot and killed his American-born 15-year-old daughter before he confessed to the crime, Gawalmandi Station House Officer (SHO) Babar Baloch said.
“Our investigation so far has found that the family had an objection to her dressing, lifestyle and social gathering,” Serious Crimes Investigation Wing (SCIW) Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zohaib Mohsin said.
“We have her phone. It is locked,” he told Reuters. “We are probing all aspects, including ‘honour’ killing.”
The family recently returned to Balochistan after having lived in the US for about 25 years, SHO Baloch said. He said that the suspect has US citizenship, adding that the suspect told him the girl began creating “objectionable” content on TikTok when she lived in the US.
The suspect told police that she continued to share videos on the platform after returning to Pakistan.
Baloch said the suspect’s brother-in-law was also arrested in connection with the killing, while police said they had charged the suspect with the murder.
Police did not offer proof of Haq’s US citizenship except for the suspect’s own testimony and declined to say whether the US embassy had been informed of the incident.
A press release by the SCIW said the police was alerted about the incident on Monday night, following which the suspect filed a case at the Gawalmandi Police Station under Pakistan Penal Code Section 302 (intentional murder).
It added that the suspect and his brother-in-law confessed to the crime when they were included in the investigation. It further said the suspect had arrived with his daughter in Lahore from New York on Jan 15 and in Quetta on Jan 22.
His family declined to respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
More than 54 million people use TikTok in Pakistan, with authorities blocking the video-sharing app several times in recent years over content moderation.
Authorities take issue with what they term “obscene content” on the social media platform, which has lately started complying with requests to remove certain content.
Data from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan showed that in 2024, ‘honour’ killings continued to be a serious issue across Pakistan, with particularly high figures in Sindh and Punjab. From January to November, a total of 346 people fell victim to ‘honour’ crimes in the country.
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Re: HONOR KILLINGS
‘Honour’ kills
Editorial Published July 22, 2025 Updated a day ago
MURDER for ‘honour’ is craven compliance with customs that derive sustenance from blood. The most despicable form of gender violence is seen when a woman dares to love and, in doing so, violates family pride. She and her partner face death as a consequence.
A harrowing video depicting the execution of a young couple last month in Balochistan’s Dagari area recently went viral on social media and sent shockwaves across Pakistan. In the gruesome footage, a young woman is shot down as several men look on. A terrorism case has been registered on behalf of the state, and a dozen suspects, including a tribal elder who allegedly ordered the killing, are under arrest.
The case has been transferred to the Serious Crimes Investigation Wing, while the Quetta judicial magistrate has ordered that the woman’s body be exhumed. Two men in Attock also decided to restore family ‘honour’ with bloodshed: a mother of an infant took multiple bullets over doubts about her ‘character’ by both her husband and father-in-law. In Lower Dir, communal honour devoured a couple suspected of having illicit relations.
The persistence of such a scourge has sparked outrage about parallel justice systems and the fragile state of women’s liberties in Pakistan. These acts should be stripped of all traditional context that valorises them. In 2016, the government moved to plug loopholes that made it easy for ‘honour’ killers to walk free: Section 311 of the PPC, which addresses ‘fasad fil arz’, ensures that the state can intervene when ‘honour’ killing occurs and if the complainant forgives the perpetrator. Despite the amendments, punishment for murder, including ‘honour’ killings, can be set aside by the victim’s legal heirs.
Courts rarely exercise the discretion to overrule settlements between perpetrators and the kin, thereby perpetuating a culture of impunity. The state must show resolve to protect its citizens from the cancer of patriarchy.
The path to stem the rise in such murders over the last two years — HRCP data from January to November 2024 shows that 346 people were killed for ‘honour’ — lies in reforms to uphold justice, constitutional guarantees, and accountability. It does not help that activists focus on the courage of a woman facing the barrel of the gun. No life should be lost to toxic control. Women are not the family’s social currency.
Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025
https://www.dawn.com/news/1925781/honour-kills
Editorial Published July 22, 2025 Updated a day ago
MURDER for ‘honour’ is craven compliance with customs that derive sustenance from blood. The most despicable form of gender violence is seen when a woman dares to love and, in doing so, violates family pride. She and her partner face death as a consequence.
A harrowing video depicting the execution of a young couple last month in Balochistan’s Dagari area recently went viral on social media and sent shockwaves across Pakistan. In the gruesome footage, a young woman is shot down as several men look on. A terrorism case has been registered on behalf of the state, and a dozen suspects, including a tribal elder who allegedly ordered the killing, are under arrest.
The case has been transferred to the Serious Crimes Investigation Wing, while the Quetta judicial magistrate has ordered that the woman’s body be exhumed. Two men in Attock also decided to restore family ‘honour’ with bloodshed: a mother of an infant took multiple bullets over doubts about her ‘character’ by both her husband and father-in-law. In Lower Dir, communal honour devoured a couple suspected of having illicit relations.
The persistence of such a scourge has sparked outrage about parallel justice systems and the fragile state of women’s liberties in Pakistan. These acts should be stripped of all traditional context that valorises them. In 2016, the government moved to plug loopholes that made it easy for ‘honour’ killers to walk free: Section 311 of the PPC, which addresses ‘fasad fil arz’, ensures that the state can intervene when ‘honour’ killing occurs and if the complainant forgives the perpetrator. Despite the amendments, punishment for murder, including ‘honour’ killings, can be set aside by the victim’s legal heirs.
Courts rarely exercise the discretion to overrule settlements between perpetrators and the kin, thereby perpetuating a culture of impunity. The state must show resolve to protect its citizens from the cancer of patriarchy.
The path to stem the rise in such murders over the last two years — HRCP data from January to November 2024 shows that 346 people were killed for ‘honour’ — lies in reforms to uphold justice, constitutional guarantees, and accountability. It does not help that activists focus on the courage of a woman facing the barrel of the gun. No life should be lost to toxic control. Women are not the family’s social currency.
Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025
https://www.dawn.com/news/1925781/honour-kills
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Re: HONOR KILLINGS
Mother of seven children killed by husband over ‘honour’ in Karachi’s Lyari: police
Imtiaz Ali Published August 5, 2025 Updated about 11 hours ago
A mother of seven children was shot dead allegedly by her husband in an ‘honour’ killing case in Chakiwara area of Lyari on Tuesday, according to police.
“Bakhtawar, 40, was shot and killed by her husband at Miranaka [in Chakiwara, Lyari],” Chakiwara Station House Officer (SHO) Sajid Dharejo told Dawn.com.
“The husband was arrested, and the pistol used in the murder was recovered,” he added.
The police official said that the woman was asleep inside their home near Koyla Godam, Street-7, at around 1:30am when the suspect fired four shots. She sustained three bullet wounds and died on the spot.
“The murder appears to be an outcome of ‘honour’ killing,” Dharejo continued.
During the initial probe, the arrested man told the police that his wife used to talk with a man on her cell phone.
He had warned her not to do it, but she did not give any heed to his warning, the husband claimed.
The SHO said the husband is a labourer and hailed from Mansehra. The body of the victim was shifted to Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi for legal formalities.
In Pakistan, ‘honour’ killings continued to claim the lives of women throughout last year, perpetuated by deeply ingrained societal beliefs about family dignity and shame.
Data from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan shows that in 2024, ‘honour’ killings continued to be a serious issue across Pakistan, with particularly high figures in Sindh and Punjab. From January to November, a total of 346 people fell victim to ‘honour’ crimes in the country.
Last month, two men were shot dead while a third one was injured over ‘honour’ in Karachi’s Manghopir area, police had said.
Also last month, a man was killed over so-called honour in Sharifabad, according to police.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1928913/mothe ... ari-police
Imtiaz Ali Published August 5, 2025 Updated about 11 hours ago
A mother of seven children was shot dead allegedly by her husband in an ‘honour’ killing case in Chakiwara area of Lyari on Tuesday, according to police.
“Bakhtawar, 40, was shot and killed by her husband at Miranaka [in Chakiwara, Lyari],” Chakiwara Station House Officer (SHO) Sajid Dharejo told Dawn.com.
“The husband was arrested, and the pistol used in the murder was recovered,” he added.
The police official said that the woman was asleep inside their home near Koyla Godam, Street-7, at around 1:30am when the suspect fired four shots. She sustained three bullet wounds and died on the spot.
“The murder appears to be an outcome of ‘honour’ killing,” Dharejo continued.
During the initial probe, the arrested man told the police that his wife used to talk with a man on her cell phone.
He had warned her not to do it, but she did not give any heed to his warning, the husband claimed.
The SHO said the husband is a labourer and hailed from Mansehra. The body of the victim was shifted to Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi for legal formalities.
In Pakistan, ‘honour’ killings continued to claim the lives of women throughout last year, perpetuated by deeply ingrained societal beliefs about family dignity and shame.
Data from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan shows that in 2024, ‘honour’ killings continued to be a serious issue across Pakistan, with particularly high figures in Sindh and Punjab. From January to November, a total of 346 people fell victim to ‘honour’ crimes in the country.
Last month, two men were shot dead while a third one was injured over ‘honour’ in Karachi’s Manghopir area, police had said.
Also last month, a man was killed over so-called honour in Sharifabad, according to police.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1928913/mothe ... ari-police