Senior journalist Irshad Bhatti has revealed that a Baloch woman and a man, who were brutally murdered, had been living together without a prenuptial agreement for four months.
The incident has raised serious questions about Pakistan’s judicial system and the absence of effective law enforcement in the region.
Weeks after the story broke, senior reporter Irshad Bhatti revealed further information about the victims, identified as Bano and Ehsan. Both were of Baloch descent from the Samalani tribe for Bano and Satakzai tribe for Ehsan and their native language was Brahui. Bano, who was a mother of five children, had shared four months of life with Ehsan before finally returning to her original husband. Ehsan, who is around 50 years old, is also a father of five children.
Quoting sources, Bhatti said that Ehsan went into hiding after Bano returned to her former husband. When he resurfaced, family members of Bano saw the episode as a serious insult to tribal honor and began planning a revenge killing. Ehsan had first gone to the Satakzai tribal chief for protection, who provided temporary shelter but later gave in to the pressure from the woman’s family.
A jirga in the tribe was allegedly called in which it was decided to kill both Bano and Ehsan. They were blamed for defying tribal norms and cultural values by living together without a proper wedlock.
According to Bhatti, Bano was shot seven times, including a fatal shot to the head, while Ehsan sustained nine gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen. The woman was allegedly killed by her own family members, including her brothers, uncle, nephew, and cousin. Bhatti described the killings as “a mass execution under tribal orders.”
No one from the local community filed a First Information Report (FIR), and the state became the only complainant in the case. When the police officials tried to arrest the suspects, they alleged they faced resistance from women belonging to both tribes, who hurled stones at them and openly demonstrated support for the murders.
