One killed, four injured in IED blast in southwestern Pakistan
Police said the blast took place at Brewery Road near the western bypass in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's restive Balochistan. The official confirmed that a vehicle with two people in it exploded due to the blast, injuring passersby on the busy road.
'Unidentified individuals attached a magnetic IED to a private vehicle which exploded in Quetta city,' Mehmood Kharoti, the station house officer at Brewery Road, told Arab News.
'One civilian named Hussain Ali, a resident of Kalat city, was killed in the attack and four people including three passersby were injured,' he added.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatist groups involved in targeting law enforcers and state-backed tribal leaders in the province.
Kharoti said police were investigating the possible motives behind the attack.
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but most impoverished province, has been the site of a long-running insurgency that has intensified in recent months, with separatist militants attacking security forces, government officials and installations and people from other provinces who they see as 'outsiders.'
The Pakistani government says it has launched several development schemes relating to infrastructure, health and education for some 15 million people of Balochistan, which is also home to a deep seaport being built by China, gold, copper and coal mines, and has a long coast on the Arabian Sea.
The most prominent of these separatist militant groups in the province is the Baloch Liberation Army, which has carried out several attacks against law enforcers and political leaders considered close to the military leadership.
Balochistan has seen a spike in militant violence in recent days. An IED blast killed two tribal leaders and injured seven others on Saturday in a remote mountainous town in Quetta district.
In March, BLA fighters stormed a passenger train in Balochistan and held hostage hundreds of passengers before the military launched an operation to rescue them.
Pakistan's government accuses India of arming and funding separatist militant groups against the state, an allegation that New Delhi has repeatedly denied. The BLA and other similar groups accuse Islamabad of denying the local Baloch population a share in the province's natural resources. Pakistan's government and military deny the allegations.
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Arab News
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Viral ‘honor' killing in southwest Pakistan triggers national outrage
KARACHI: A viral video of the 'honor killing' of a woman and her lover in a remote part of Pakistan has ignited national outrage, prompting scrutiny of long-standing tribal codes and calls for justice in a country where such killings often pass in silence. While hundreds of so-called honor killings are reported in Pakistan each year, often with little public or legal response, the video of a woman and man accused of adultery being taken to the desert by a group of men to be killed has struck a nerve. The video shows the woman, Bano Bibi, being handed a Qur'an by a man identified by police as her brother. 'Come walk seven steps with me, after that you can shoot me,' she says, and she walks forward a few feet and stops with her back to the men. The brother, Jalal Satakzai, then shoots her three times and she collapses. Seconds later he shoots and kills the man, Ehsan Ullah Samalani, whom Bano was accused of having an affair with. Once the video of the killings in Pakistan's Balochistan province went viral, it brought swift government action and condemnation from politicians, rights groups and clerics. Civil rights lawyer Jibran Nasir said, though, the government's response was more about performance than justice. 'The crime occurred months ago, not in secrecy but near a provincial capital, yet no one acted until 240 million witnessed the killing on camera,' he said. 'This isn't a response to a crime. It's a response to a viral moment.' Police have arrested 16 people in Balochistan's Nasirabad district, including a tribal chief and the woman's mother. The mother, Gul Jan Bibi, said the killings were carried out by family and local elders based on 'centuries-old Baloch traditions,' and not on the orders of the tribal chief. 'We did not commit any sin,' she said in a video statement that also went viral. 'Bano and Ehsan were killed according to our customs.' She said her daughter, who had three sons and two daughters, had run away with Ehsan and returned after 25 days. Police said Bano's younger brother, who shot the couple, remains at large. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said it was a 'test' case and vowed to dismantle the illegal tribal courts operating outside the law. Police had earlier said a jirga, an informal tribal council that issues extrajudicial rulings, had ordered the killings. #JusticeForCouple The video sparked online condemnation, with hashtags like #JusticeForCouple and #HonourKilling trending. The Pakistan Ulema Council, a body of religious scholars, called the killings 'un-Islamic' and urged terrorism charges against those involved. Dozens of civil society members and rights activists staged a protest on Saturday in the provincial capital Quetta, demanding justice and an end to parallel justice systems. 'Virality is a double-edged sword,' said Arsalan Khan, a cultural anthropologist and professor who studies gender and masculinity. 'It can pressure the state into action, but public spectacle can also serve as a strategy to restore ghairat, or perceived family honor, in the eyes of the community.' Pakistan outlawed honor killings in 2016 after the murder of social media star Qandeel Baloch, closing a loophole that allowed perpetrators to go free if they were pardoned by family members. Rights groups say enforcement remains weak, especially in rural areas where tribal councils still hold sway. 'In a country where conviction rates often fall to single digits, visibility – and the uproar it brings – has its advantages,' said constitutional lawyer Asad Rahim Khan. 'It jolts a complacent state that continues to tolerate jirgas in areas beyond its writ.' The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported at least 405 honor killings in 2024. Most victims are women, often killed by relatives claiming to defend family honor. Khan said rather than enforcing the law, the government has spent the past year weakening the judiciary and even considering reviving jirgas in former tribal areas. 'It's executive inaction, most shamefully toward women in Balochistan,' Khan said. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in recent months has asked senior ministers to evaluate proposals to revive jirgas in Pakistan's former tribal districts, including potential engagement with tribal elders and Afghan authorities. The Prime Minister's Office and Pakistan's information minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Viral and then forgotten? The Balochistan killings were raised in Pakistan's Senate, where the human rights committee condemned the murders and called for action against those who convened the jirga. Lawmakers also warned that impunity for parallel justice systems risked encouraging similar violence. Activists and analysts, however, say the outrage is unlikely to be sustained. 'There's noise now, but like every time, it will fade,' said Jalila Haider, a human rights lawyer in Quetta. 'In many areas, there is no writ of law, no enforcement. Only silence.' Haider said the killings underscore the state's failure to protect citizens in under-governed regions like Balochistan, where tribal power structures fill the vacuum left by absent courts and police. 'It's not enough to just condemn jirgas,' Haider said. 'The real question is: why does the state allow them to exist in the first place?'
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Viral ‘honor' killings in southwest Pakistan trigger nationwide outrage
A viral video of the 'honor killing' of a woman and her lover in a remote part of Pakistan has ignited national outrage, prompting scrutiny of long-standing tribal codes and calls for justice in a country where such killings often pass in silence. While hundreds of so-called honor killings are reported in Pakistan each year, often with little public or legal response, the video of a woman and man accused of adultery being taken to the desert by a group of men to be killed has struck a nerve. The video shows the woman, Bano Bibi, being handed a Quran by a man identified by police as her brother. 'Come walk seven steps with me, after that you can shoot me,' she says, and she walks forward a few feet and stops with her back to the men. The brother, Jalal Satakzai, then shoots her three times and she collapses. Seconds later he shoots and kills the man, Ehsan Ullah Samalani, whom Bano was accused of having an affair with. Once the video of the killings in Pakistan's Balochistan province went viral, it brought swift government action and condemnation from politicians, rights groups and clerics. Civil rights lawyer Jibran Nasir said, though, the government's response was more about performance than justice. 'The crime occurred months ago, not in secrecy but near a provincial capital, yet no one acted until 240 million witnessed the killing on camera,' he said. 'This isn't a response to a crime. It's a response to a viral moment.' Police have arrested 16 people in Balochistan's Nasirabad district, including a tribal chief and the woman's mother. The mother, Gul Jan Bibi, said the killings were carried out by family and local elders based on 'centuries-old Baloch traditions', and not on the orders of the tribal chief. 'We did not commit any sin,' she said in a video statement that also went viral. 'Bano and Ehsan were killed according to our customs.' She said her daughter, who had three sons and two daughters, had run away with Ehsan and returned after 25 days. Police said Bano's younger brother, who shot the couple, remains at large. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said it was a 'test' case and vowed to dismantle the illegal tribal courts operating outside the law. Police had earlier said a jirga, an informal tribal council that issues extrajudicial rulings, had ordered the killings. #JusticeForCouple The video sparked online condemnation, with hashtags like #JusticeForCouple and #HonourKilling trending. The Pakistan Ulema Council, a body of religious scholars, called the killings 'un-Islamic' and urged terrorism charges against those involved. Dozens of civil society members and rights activists staged a protest on Saturday in the provincial capital Quetta, demanding justice and an end to parallel justice systems. 'Virality is a double-edged sword,' said Arsalan Khan, a cultural anthropologist and professor who studies gender and masculinity. 'It can pressure the state into action, but public spectacle can also serve as a strategy to restore ghairat, or perceived family honor, in the eyes of the community.' Pakistan outlawed honor killings in 2016 after the murder of social media star Qandeel Baloch, closing a loophole that allowed perpetrators to go free if they were pardoned by family members. Rights groups say enforcement remains weak, especially in rural areas where tribal councils still hold sway. 'In a country where conviction rates often fall to single digits, visibility - and the uproar it brings - has its advantages,' said constitutional lawyer Asad Rahim Khan. 'It jolts a complacent state that continues to tolerate jirgas in areas beyond its writ.' The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported at least 405 honor killings in 2024. Most victims are women, often killed by relatives claiming to defend family honor. Khan said rather than enforcing the law, the government has spent the past year weakening the judiciary and even considering reviving jirgas in former tribal areas. 'It's executive inaction, most shamefully toward women in Balochistan,' Khan said. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in recent months has asked senior ministers to evaluate proposals to revive jirgas in Pakistan's former tribal districts, including potential engagement with tribal elders and Afghan authorities. The Prime Minister's Office and Pakistan's information minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Viral and then forgotten? The Balochistan killings were raised in Pakistan's Senate, where the human rights committee condemned the murders and called for action against those who convened the jirga. Lawmakers also warned that impunity for parallel justice systems risked encouraging similar violence. Activists and analysts, however, say the outrage is unlikely to be sustained. 'There's noise now, but like every time, it will fade,' said Jalila Haider, a human rights lawyer in Quetta. 'In many areas, there is no writ of law, no enforcement. Only silence.' Haider said the killings underscore the state's failure to protect citizens in under-governed regions like Balochistan, where tribal power structures fill the vacuum left by absent courts and police. 'It's not enough to just condemn jirgas,' Haider said.
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
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Pakistan arrests 11 after viral video of couple shot dead in ‘honor killing'
Pakistan has arrested 11 suspects after a video emerged on social media of a woman and a man being shot and killed for marrying against the wishes of their families, in a so-called honour killing, authorities said. The couple, who were not identified, were shot dead on the orders of a local tribal council last month in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, according to provincial authorities, who investigated after the video went viral. Eleven suspects have been arrested, the provincial chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, said in a statement on Monday, hours after he announced that the location and people in the video had been identified. A case has been registered against all those involved, Bugti said, adding that they will be prosecuted. The video shows people in a desert, and some pickup trucks and SUVs in which they had apparently been driven there. In the video, the woman tells a man: 'Come walk seven steps with me, after that you can shoot me.' The man then follows her for a few steps. A local police official said the woman did not cry or seek mercy. 'You are allowed only to shoot me. Nothing more than that,' the woman says in the regional Brahavi language, translated by the official. It was not clear what she meant by 'nothing more than that'. The man, who had followed her, then aimed a pistol at her as she turned her back to the shooter. The woman, wrapped in a shawl, stood still as shots were fired. She remained standing after two shots, delivered from close range, dropping to the ground after the third shot. That is followed by a series of gunshots. The footage then shows a bloodied man lying on the ground, close to the woman's body. Then, men are shown shooting at both the bodies. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that in 2024, there were at least 405 'honor killings', criticizing the authorities for failing to stamp out these crimes. Most victims are women, and the killings are usually carried out by relatives professing to defend their family's reputation, human rights groups say. Conservative families in many parts of Pakistan and India do not allow couples to marry against their wishes.
