Pregnant woman and husband abducted and shot dead by relatives who disapproved of marriage
A PREGNANT woman and her husband have been abducted and shot dead by relatives in Pakistan who disapproved of their marriage.
A group of relatives kidnapped the couple, shot them both and dumped their bodies in the canal
The murders of Aqsa Bibi, 22, and Shakeel Ahmed, 26, took place in the village of Thikriwala in the Punjab province.
The couple's four year old marriage reportedly enraged Aqsa's family.
Matters came to a head when a group of relatives kidnapped the couple, shot them both in the head and dumped their bodies in the canal.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to eradicate the "evil" of honour killings amid publicity for the Oscar-winning film on the subject 'A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness'.
Recently there have been a surge in honour killings.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan 1,100 honour killing incidents took place in 2015, 1,105 in 2014 and 869 in 2013.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to eradicate the "evil" of honour killings
Last week a man's throat was slit by relatives of his wife who disapproved of their match; a rare instance of a male victim.
The week before, 16 year-old Zeenat Bibi was burned to death in Lahore by her mother for marrying a man of her own choice.
The case sparked condemnation throughout the country.
Hassan Khan shows a picture of Zeenat Bibi on his marriage certificate
The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) in Pakistan, which advices the government on religious aspects of law and society, recently declared that killings in the name of family honour is un-Islamic and against the law.
It is not clear how many months' pregnant Aqsa was before her murder.