Sisters strangled in ‘honor killing’ for refusing to get Pakistani husbands’ Spain visas – World News

Aneesa Abbas, 24, and Arooj Abbas, 21, were strangled and shot dead in alleged “honor killings” in Pakistan after they were tricked on returning to northeastern Pakistan’s Gujrat district

Two sisters living in Spain were tricked into returning to Pakistan, where they were strangled and shot dead in an “honor killing,” sources say.

Aneesa Abbas, 24, and Arooj Abbas, 21, were said to have been forced to marry their cousins ​​more than a year ago but failed to obtain visas for their husbands to move to Spain.

The sisters are said to have been dissatisfied with their husbands and wanted to remarry in Spain.

However, they were reportedly tricked into returning to Pakistan’s north-eastern Gujrat district on May 19 and killed the next day.

Arriving in Gujrat with mother Azra Bibi, they were pressured by their husbands to apply for spousal visas that would allow them to move to Spain as well.

The sisters resisted and were strangled and then shot dead after saying they wanted to marry different people in Spain, local media reported.

Police said the mother of the two women tried to help them but was then locked in another room.

“The investigation has confirmed that both sisters were killed in the name of ‘honor’,” said investigating police officer Muhammad Akhtar.

Police said the women’s husbands, Hassan Aurengzeb and Atiq Hanif, her uncle, Hanif Goga, and her brother, Shehryar Abbas, were arrested and confessed to the murder. Two other men were arrested in connection with the attack.

It is not uncommon for women in Pakistan to be murdered in so-called “honor killings,” usually carried out by their families. Here, women are often forced into marriage or refuse to accept what their families ask them to do.

There were 478 cases of this type of murder in Pakistan last year, according to the country’s Human Rights Commission, but it is feared there could be as many as 1,000 cases and others have gone unreported.

For up to six years, some men who committed the “honor” killings could escape jail if pardoned by their cousins.

Then, in 2016, a law was introduced mandating a life sentence for anyone found guilty of “honor killing”.