Pakistan police make arrests after outcry over 'honour killing'

More than a dozen men have been arrested in southwestern Pakistan for alleged involvement in the so-called "honour killing" of a couple after a video of the murders went viral on social media, a police official said Monday.

A police report seen by the media identifies the woman as Bano Bibi and the man as Ehsan Ullah, and says they were killed last month in Margat, near Quetta in Balochistan, after eloping.

In a video circulating on social media, more than a dozen men are seen gathered in a remote, mountainous desert area, with SUVs and pickup trucks parked nearby.

A woman is ordered to stand facing away from the group before a man pulls out a gun and shoots her in the back.

He then turns the weapon on a man and shoots him dead.

"We have arrested over a dozen men for their involvement in the incident," a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authourised to speak to the media.

The official said those arrested included a cousin of the woman and the tribal elder who headed the jirga, or tribal council, that ordered the killings.

It comes after the video of the incident went viral at the weekend, prompting the provincial Balochistan government to register a case under terrorism charges.

The chief minister of the province described the incident as "heinous".

Traditional jirgas made up mostly of male elders are used to settle local disputes and are commonplace in rural Pakistan where they operate legally alongside the modern court system.

Much of Pakistani society operates under a strict code of "honour", with women beholden to their male relatives over choices around education, employment and who they can marry.

Hundreds of women are killed by men in Pakistan every year for allegedly breaching this code.

Women's rights activist Nighat Dad told AFP that jirgas were continuing to make rulings on cases like this despite a Supreme Court ban.

"And yet, nothing has changed," she said.

"This recent case -- only acted upon because the video went viral -- would likely have been buried, like hundreds of others that never get reported."

Agence France-Presse