Maria Bibi, 22 years old, was murdered in the early hours of March 18 by her brother Muhammad Faisal, in the presence of her father Abdul Sattar, near the city of Toba Tek Singh, in the province of Punjab.
A video, filmed by the victim’s other brother, Shehbaz, and which went viral on social media, shows Faisal strangling his sister on a bed in the family home, in front of their father, who is sitting.
Although the motivation for the murder is unknown, Faisal allegedly caught his sister talking to an unknown man via video call several times, according to police.
“The police discovered on March 24 that the young woman did not die of natural causes. We opened a case, in which we ourselves are the complainants,” Ata Ullah, Toba Tek Singh police officer, told AFP.
Abdul Sattar and Faisal were detained shortly afterwards and Shehbaz was detained on Saturday night. According to police, the murder appears to be one of the so-called “honor crimes”, which supposedly serve to “cleanse the honor” of a family.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in 2022, 316 crimes of this type were recorded against women. In many cases, murders go unreported and are covered up by the families themselves.
