Ten Muslims arrested for murder of newlyweds

"It's how we roll"

Karachi, Pakistan -- Ten people have been arrested for killing a newlywed couple for entering into a free-will marriage based on mutual love. The murders occurred in the southern city of Karachi, where sharia is the law and murder is often the punishment.

Officer Qasim Hameed said Monday that Abdul Hadi, 24, and Hasina Bibi, 19, were killed by their family members last week for marrying without the permission from older, more miserable and angry relatives this month.

Qasim said Hadi's father and nine other relatives were arrested after the bodies of the young couple were discovered in a local graveyard on Sunday.  The officer said that the girl's father ran away.

The men confessed to murdering the couple with knives as they were ordered to do by a "Jirga," or tribal council, for dishonoring their Pashtun culture, a sect of Muslims who believe it's better to have killed than loved than never to have killed at all.

Every year about 1,000 Pakistani women are killed by their "loved ones" in so-called honor killings.

In the West, we call that sick.


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