Five dead in Pakistan honour killing

KARACHI - Five people including a teenaged couple who married against their families' will have been killed by relatives in the latest incident of so-called honour killing in Pakistan, police said on Thursday.

Killings carried out in the name of a family's honour are common in Pakistan's conservative rural areas where old feudal and tribal traditions still hold sway.

The couple - Kamalan and Allah Rakhio - both 18 and from rival clans in the southern province of Sindh, had married about three months ago after eloping, said Usman Subaho, a police officer investigating the case.

"They were killed just a few days after returning to their village after getting married in Karachi," he said.

"We have identified 10 men who took part in this carnage and are hunting for them," he said.

The girl's family took her wedding as a slight on their honour. The attackers stormed the couple's house early on Wednesday morning killing them and three other family members including a three-year-old girl, said Subaho.

Eleven family members were wounded in the attack, he said.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says about 1000 people are killed in honour-related crimes every year in Pakistan.

- REUTERS