Tribal chief among 14 arrested after ‘honour' killing video from Pakistan goes viral
The first information report (FIR) filed by the police on Monday identifies the victims as Bano Bibi and Ehsan Ullah. The killings, believed to have taken place in May near Quetta, were described by police as a so-called 'honour killing.'
The disturbing video circulating on social media shows shows a group of men arriving in a desolate area on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province, in an SUV and pickup trucks.
The footage captures the moment the accused couple is taken out of one of the vehicles. According to The Guardian, the woman is handed a copy of the Qur'an.
Speaking in the local Brahavi language, she says to a man: 'Come, walk seven steps with me, after that you can shoot me.' He follows her for a few steps before she adds: 'You are allowed only to shoot me. Nothing more than that.'
The meaning of her final statement remains unclear. The man then raises a pistol as she turns her back to him. After three close-range shots, she collapses to the ground.
The video then cuts to a bloodied man lying near the woman's body, followed by a barrage of gunfire as several men are seen shooting at the couple's bloodied bodies as they lay motionless on the ground. A local court has now ordered that the bodies be exhumed for autopsy.
Police told Reuters that the woman's brother carried out the killing on behalf of the family, while the local tribal leader, identified as Sher Baz Satakzai, ordered the execution. The tribal chief is among those arrested, said Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, adding, 'No one has a right, no matter what, to kill someone in such a painful and disgusting way, and then video shoot it. It is a crime. It is a murder.'
The man and woman, accused of having an affair out of wedlock, both had several children from separate marriages, Bugti said.
As per Al Jazeera, which quoted the FIR, the couple was allegedly brought before tribal leader, who declared them guilty of engaging in an 'immoral relationship' and ordered that they be killed.
However, Police chief Naveed Akhtar said the tribal chief ordered the killing after the woman's brother complained that she had married without his consent, The Guardian reported.
Rights organisations say the case is not an isolated incident but part of a systemic pattern of violence against women. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), at least 405 so-called 'honour killings' were reported in 2024 alone — most of them targeting women. The Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO), another watchdog, says just one of the 32 cases reported in Balochistan this year has led to conviction.
'This is the tyranny of medieval practices still entrenched in many parts of Pakistan,' said Harris Khalique, secretary-general of the HRCP, in an earlier statement to Al Jazeera. He blamed both tribal systems and state complicity, accusing the government of shielding feudal and tribal power structures that perpetuate such violence.
Sammi Deen Baloch, a prominent women's rights activist from the region, told Al Jazeera that women in Balochistan live under two forms of oppression: 'tribal patriarchy and the cold repression of the state.' According to her, these killings would likely have gone unnoticed if the video had not emerged on social media. 'Baloch women are murdered for love, disappeared for protest, and buried under layers of tribal authority and state-backed silence.'
Authorities now say they are committed to prosecuting all those responsible. 'We will make sure they are all prosecuted,' Bugti said.
Pakistan's Balochistan province, the largest but least populous region in the country, is mineral-rich but plagued by chronic underdevelopment, tribal conflict, and a long-running separatist insurgency. Activists argue that the Pakistani state's reliance on tribal intermediaries for governance further entrenches patriarchal violence and limits justice for women.
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