Man Hires Gunman to Kill Daughter
Tuesday, April 6, 1999; 6:03 p.m. EDT
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) -- A woman seeking a divorce was shot and killed in the women's shelter where she had sought refuge by a gunman thought to have been hired by her father.
Samia Imran, 32, had fled to the shelter in Lahore, capital of the Pakistani state of Punjab, while pursuing the divorce, which was opposed by her family.
The gunman arrived at the shelter with Imran's mother, who Imran thought had come seeking reconciliation, police said.
Instead the gunman fired two shots into Imran at point blank range. She was killed immediately, before the eyes of her lawyer, human rights activist Hina Jillani. The gunman was then shot dead by a security guard at the shelter, police said.
Imran was from Pakistan's conservative Northwest Frontier Province, where women usually are cloistered away shortly after puberty, married to a man selected by their parents and seldom seen in public without a veil.
Divorce is seldom sanctioned by parents and is often seen as a disgrace. Rigid tribal law in that region of Pakistan also allows a father or brother to kill a female relative if they believe she has disgraced the family.
Police were searching for Imran's father. Her mother's role in the alleged plot was unclear.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Human rights activists on Wednesday demanded new laws to protect women in Pakistan, a day after a woman was killed by her relatives for seeking a divorce.
``Stop killing women in the name of honor,'' human rights activists shouted in the capital, Islamabad, during a demonstration against the killing of Samia Imran.
Imran, 32, was shot to death inside the office of her lawyer in Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province Tuesday.
Police said the killer was hired by Imran's family members. He arrived at the office along with Imran's mother.
``Such killings occur regularly in Pakistan,'' said the Joint Action Committee for Women's and Citizen's Rights, which organized the demonstration.
The group said that state institutions fail to protect women and instead often support family members who victimize them in the name of honor.