Two Pakistani-origin Spanish sisters were allegedly severely tortured and shot dead in Nathia village, about 170 km from Lahore in Gujarat district of Pakistan's Punjab province, in a case of ‘honour’ killing on Friday, 20 May.
Arooj Abbas, 21, and Aneesa Abbas, 23, were allegedly killed for refusing to take their husbands, who were also their cousins, back to Spain, reported PTI.
Two days after the murder, the police on Sunday arrested six men from the same family. Initial investigation suggested that both the sisters were not happy with their marriages.
The arrested persons included their brother Shehryar, their uncle Muhammad Hanif, along with Qasid, Atiq, Hassan, and Asfandyar, The Express Tribune reported on Sunday.
"The police have arrested the six people, including the mastermind, in the tragic incident," the Punjab police tweeted.
"According to preliminary investigation, the sisters were against their forced marriages and were allegedly killed by their brother and uncle," the tweet added.
Girls Came Back Europe One Day Before Killing
The girls were killed only one day after they came back to Pakistan from Spain, where they grew up. They were forcibly called to Pakistan from Spain on 19 May, along with their mother Azra Bibi.
Muhammad Nadeem, assistant sub-inspector at Gulliana Police Station, said that the girls' father had settled in Europe illegally and later ensured that he was joined by his family.
A teenager from the neighbourhood told Dawn that many people from the village have gone to Europe and settled there, but nothing like this has ever happened.
Forced Marriage Within Family
On the fateful night, the two sisters were shot dead in the house of their maternal uncle, Hanif alias Goga.
District Police Officer (DPO) Gujrat Ata-ur-Rehman said that the sisters were allegedly killed by their brother and uncle for not complying with their wishes as they were forcefully married within the family.
DPO Rehman said that the sisters wanted a divorce from their husbands and to marry someone else in Spain. However, they were tricked into returning home.
When both the sisters refused to sign papers to enable their husbands to emigrate to Spain and demanded a divorce, a bitter argument ensued, following which the women were killed, said the police.
The police registered a case on the complaint of ASI Yasir Nadeem against seven suspects and two unidentified persons.
This is because the mother of the deceased refused to become the complainant in the case.
Describing the quarrel that ended up in murder, Dawn reported that the noise from all the fighting and shouting could be heard across neighbourhood but even when parties concerned tried to intervene, they were stopped by the family elders on the pretext that this was a "family matter."
Despite the gunshots that ended the argument and the lives of Arooj and Aneesa, no villager "dared to enter the house."
The village headman then called the police, after which the corpses were discovered.
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