Islamabad, Jan. 23 : Relatives of a teenage Pakistani girl have electrocuted her for falling in love with a man they did not approve of, police said on Sunday.
Elders and the family of Saima Bibi, 17, decided after a meeting of a village council, or panchayat, that her punishment for shaming the family should be death, a police official said.
The Prime Minister, Mr Yusuf Raza Gilani, took “serious note” of the “the sad incident of the killing of a girl by electric current on the orders of the panchayat,” his office said.
Officials at the PMO said Mr Gilani has ordered the police to immediately submit a report on the incident.
Bibi’s death appeared to be what is known as an honour killing.
They are common in rural areas where, under centuries-old tribal customs, getting married without permission of male relatives or having sex outside marriage is deemed a serious slight to the honour of the family, or the tribe.
Hundreds of people, mostly women, are killed in Pakistan in the name of “honour” every year, with the majority of victims from poor, rural families.
Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission said in its report that nearly 650 women were killed in that way in 2009.