Father kills daughter who married for love

A father, angry that his eldest daughter had married for love, slit her throat as she slept before killing three other daughters in a remote village in eastern Pakistan, police said today.

Nazir Ahmad, a labourer in his 40s, feared the younger girls, aged four to 12, would follow in their sister’s footsteps, police said.

Ahmad surrendered to police after the killings in Burewala, about 70 miles east of Multan, a main city in eastern Punjab province.

“He (Ahmad) told us today that he has killed his daughters, and we arrested him,” a police spokesman added.

He said the man’s eldest daughter, Muqadas Bibi, 25, had married the man of her choice against her father’s wishes some weeks ago.

Ahmad had then contacted Bibi only this week, saying he was ready to forgive her, police said.

But during a visit by Bibi to her parents’ house, Ahmad slit her throat as she slept and then killed the other three girls, the police spokesman said, adding that police were investigating whether any other relative helped in the killings.

Police are also looking for Bibi’s husband.

Hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan every year, many by male relatives, after they are accused of having affairs or marrying for love without their families’ consent.