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Karo-kari killings in Sindh

THE eye opening letter, ‘Karo-kari killings in Sindh’ (Nov 6) by Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh gives us the historical background of and in depth study of the reasons for the heinous practice of killing women on the pretext of honour.

If we believe that there was no kari killing in this province before the 13th century when some Baloch families migrated to Sindh – and I have no reason not to believe Dr Shaikh when he says that the custom of killing women originated in Balochistan, and it was an alien concept in Sindh, though the latter learnt this cruel system of punishing women from Baloch migrants. Even to day Baloch sardars and influential people uphold, support and defend this shameful tradition.

I can refer to the Dawn report of Aug 30 which tells us that two senators from Balochistan, one of them acting chairman of the Senate at that time, rebuked Ms Nafisa Shah who had raised the question in the Senate of burying five women alive.

In defence of that brutality and inhuman act, she was threatened with dire consequences. In this connection I refer to a curt letter: ‘Cold blooded murder defendedÂ’ by an anguished Pakistani; and one of my earlier letters, ‘Karo kari: a cancer in our society’ (Oct 2, 2003), that tell you this practice has shamed Pakistan.

I have been voicing the same suggestion as Dr Shaikh has done that a new stringent law against this savage custom and police performance regardless of tribal, social or political affiliations should be made effective to curb this barbarism and un Islamic system of punishment in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Source: Dawn
Date:11/20/2008