Daily Star
A hunt is under way for a man suspected of killing his two daughters and their four children by setting fire to their house after one of the women married against his wishes.
Manzoor Hussain is being hunted by police in Pakistan for allegedly setting light to the home shared by sisters Fauzia Bibi and Khurshid Mai, according to Reuters. Khurshid’s husband also died in the blaze, police said.
Fauzia’s husband told cops he found the blaze when he returned from work early in the morning. His four-month-old son was killed, along with Khurshid’s three children, aged two, six and 13.
The sisters and their children lived in a village in the Muzaffargargh district of central Pakistan. Hussain lives in a nearby village.
Fauzia had married Mehboob Ahmad about 18 months ago against her father’s will in a so-called “love marriage”, according to police spokesman Abdul Majeed, as opposed to an arranged marriage.
It’s far from unusual in Pakistan for families to murder their own relatives over such an issue.
According to the country’s Human Rights Commission, hundreds of women in Pakistan are killed by their relatives every year for marrying without consent or against their family’s wishes, with many socially conservative patriarchs still clinging to the outdated belief that marriages should be arranged.
“The incident is the outcome of the rivalry between the two families over the love marriage,” Majeed said.
