July 21 (NIA) – Days after the shocking murder of Pakistan’s social media celebrity, Qandeel Baloch, in an alleged ‘honour killing’, a 24 year old Pakistani man was killed for the same purpose on Tuesday for having an illicit affair, police said.
The death sparked protests in many states around Pakistan on Thursday, with activists taking to the streets, calling for an end to ‘honour killings’.
Authorities said that the victim, Allah Ditta, was stabbed multiple times by five men in Pakistan’s Dera Ghazi Khan district after he was caught meeting a woman with whom he was having an affair. The victim and the woman were married to other people.
The victim was allegedly tortured by the assailants and left to die. He was rushed to Ghazi Medical College, where he died a few hours later.
Police on Thursday said they were searching for the five suspects.
Honour killings have been reported across Pakistan in the recent years but men being killed for honour is rare.
Last week, shock waves and protests broke out across Pakistan after a popular social media star, 26 year old Qandeel Baloch, was allegedly strangled to death by her brother in order to save the honour of his family.
Baloch’s brother confessed that he killed his sister, as “Girls were born only to stay at home.”
The popular star rose to fame by posting provocative images and videos to social media where she had thousands of followers. Her brother, Muhammad Waseem, who is now in police custody, said that was completely intolerable.
According to Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission, nearly 1,100 women were killed in Pakistan last year by relatives who believed they had dishonoured their families.
In its annual report the commission said 900 more women suffered sexual violence and nearly 800 took, or tried to take, their own lives.
In 2014 about 1,000 women died in honour-related attacks and 869 in 2013.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has maintained that there is no place in Islam for killing in the name of family honour.
