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 The 17-year-old girl and 31-year-old man married on June 18
without the consent of their families in eastern Pakistan's Punjabi
village of Satrah, police said.
The girl's mother and father lured the couple home late on Thursday
with the promise that their marriage would receive a family
blessing, said local police official Rana Zashid.
"When the couple reached there, they tied them with ropes," he said.
"He (the girl's father) cut their throats."
Police arrested the family, who said they had been embarrassed by
the marriage of their daughter, named Muafia Hussein, to a man from
a less important tribe.
Cultural traditions in many areas of Pakistan mean that killing a
woman whose behavior is seen as immodest is widely accepted.
Immodest behavior that sparked recent killings included singing,
looking out of the window or talking to a man who is not a relative.
For a woman to marry a man of her own choice is considered an
unacceptable insult by many families.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 869 so-called "honor
killings" were reported in the media last year - several a day. But
the true figure is probably much higher since many cases are never
reported.
The weak Pakistani government, battling with a troubled economy and
a Taliban insurgency, does not collect centralized statistics and
has no strategy to combat the killings.
Pakistani law means that even if a woman's killer is convicted, her
family are able to forgive the killer.
Many families simply nominate a member to do the killing, then
formally forgive the killer.
That's what happened earlier this week, a lawyer said, when a tribal
council in central Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district sentenced
another young couple to death for marrying for love.
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The couple's lawyer, Zia Kiyyani, said the two had appealed for
police protection after their marriage on June 21, but had not
received any.
The 19-year-old girl's family came to take her from her husband's
family, swearing on the Koran that they would not harm her and would
hold a proper wedding ceremony, he said.
"During this the girl shouted, cried and mourned for her life and
her husband's life because she knew that they will kill both of
them," he said.
The girl, named Mehreen Bibi, was shot by a member of her family
when she returned home, police said. Her husband went into hiding
and her father registered the murder complaint so he could forgive
the killer, Kiyyani said.
"That will end the case," he said.
(Additional reporting by Asim Tanveer in Multan; Writing by
Katharine Houreld; Editing by Matt Driskill)
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