Two Teens Accused Of Plotting To Elope Electrocuted By Own Families In 'honour' Killing

Both families standing behind the grave of the deceased

Neighbouring boy and girl, 17 and 16 respectively, executed by own families in horrific incident outside Karachi, Pakistan.


Rehman Afzal, and Bakht were neighbours in a suburb of Karachi. The girl ran away from home. The boy reportedly waited for her. After they were tracked down, they were accused of plotting to elope.

Ultimately, by order of the council of elders in their community and for the honor of that community, members of their own families executed them by electrocution.

“The boy and the girl had fallen in love and finally they ran,” an advocacy group worker, Kamal Shah, who has spoken with members of the community told The Washington Post through an interpreter. As a result, they paid the heaviest price.


They both lived in Brohi Goth outside of Karachi, Pakistan's most populous city, a hub of commerce and industry situated on the Arabian Sea.

In defiance of the long-standing practice of arranged marriage, the two got to know each other. Whether they were really planning on eloping remains to be established. Clearly they had something planned but perhaps only they knew for sure what it was.

In August, it was reported that the girl disappeared from her home with some cash and jewellery, headed for a house in a nearby area where she was planning on hiding out. The boy remained in his own home so as not to “arouse suspicion.”


When she went missing, the girl's parents searched her bedroom and discovered a mobile phone SIM card that belonged to the boy. They used that information to track the girl down and brought her home.

According to THE NEWS, a Pakistani English Newspaper publication, the two families met to discuss the situation.

The young man's father, Muhammad Afzal, fearing “violent retribution” from the girl's family, offered a marriage proposal between the two runaways, The News said, to settle the score. He also offered up, for good measure his other two daughters, “to pacify Taj's parents,” as Zia Ur Rehman reported. The practice, by which girls are forced into marriage to resolve disputes or offences committed by their male relatives, is called “vani” or “swara.”


The agreement went to elders of the community, the jirga, on August 15. The head of the council objected to the settlement, however. The teenagers needed to be punished to set an example and to uphold the honor of the community. The punishment, death, would have to be meted out by the families, they determined, police said.

About 11pm on 15 August, police told reporters that the girl was sedated, tied down to a rope and wood cot called a charpoy and electrocuted by her father and uncle. She was “buried that night in secrecy by five tribesmen,” The News reported.

At 3am on the 16th, the boy met the same fate, police said.

Hundreds of honour killings are reported each year in Pakistan.

Source: Independent Uk