Pakistani man kills sister for working and studying

KARACHI: A Pakistani fruit vendor shot dead his sister because she had a job and was studying for a university degree, a police official in conservative North West Frontier Province said.   

Naheeda Bibi, 22, was shot three times by her brother on Sunday near her village outside Mansehra city, as she went to catch a bus to return to Rawalpindi where she studied and worked.   

The brother, Gul Shahzad, has no remorse and says she defied him and her father, local police officer Mohammad Afzal said.

"He kept on screaming after he surrendered to the police that she met the destiny willed for her by God," he said.   

The girl's mother has lodged a report with police accusing her husband and son of killing Naheeda in revenge for her getting a higher education and working in Rawalpindi.   

The girl had returned home for the Eid holidays, as had her brother who works as a fruit vendor in Lahore.   

Afzal quoted the grieving mother as saying that the victim was a pious, God-fearing girl who wanted to become a teacher.   

"She was doing her BA in English and taught at a language institute and lived in a hostel in the same city where her father worked," he said late on Monday.   

Many Pakistani women are killed each year by relatives claiming they had violated a family code of honour. While feudal and tribal customs prevail in many areas of rural Pakistan, attitudes are ultra-conservative in isolated places like Mansehra.