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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday condemned ‘honor killing’ of a young couple in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province and called for bringing the perpetrators to justice, following public outrage over a video clip of the incident that has gone viral online since last week.

In the video circulating on social media, more than a dozen men are seen gathered in a remote, mountainous desert area, with SUVs and pickup trucks parked nearby. A woman is ordered to stand facing away from the group before a man pulls out a gun and shoots her in the back. He then turns the weapon on a man and shoots him dead as well. 

Several news outlets reported that the man and woman had just gotten married and were shot dead for marrying by choice upon the orders of a traditional tribal council formed to settle disputes. However, speaking to reporters at a news conference, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said the victims were not husband and wife. 

On Monday, PM Sharif spoke with CM Bugti over the phone and instructed him to hold investigation into the incident and punish those behind the killing in accordance with law, according to the prime minister’s office.

“No one is above the law and no one can be allowed to take the law into their own hands,” Sharif said. “All legal steps should be taken to bring the suspects to justice.”

Meanwhile, a judicial magistrate in Balochistan’s capital of Quetta on Monday ordered the exhumation of the body of the woman, local media reported. Police were still probing suspects to locate body of the slain man. The couple was shot dead in Dagari area on the outskirts of Quetta.

Bugti earlier announced the arrest of 12 suspects in the case, saying a tribal leader was also among the arrestees. He, however, said relatives of neither of the victims had filed a complaint. 

“Not a single person is ready to come forward as a victim in this case or file an FIR [first information report],” he said. 

On Sunday, Balochistan government spokesman Shahid Rind said the incident captured in the viral video had taken place in Balochistan a few weeks ago.

“This area [where the incident took place] has been identified,” Rind said. “Both families did not report the incident. We will have a case registered with the state as complainant.”

So-called honor killings are common in Pakistan, where family members and relatives sometimes kill women and men who don’t follow local traditions and culture or decide to marry of their own choice.

On Sunday, the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), a group of clerics and religious scholars, called the couple’s killing “un-Islamic, anti-Sharia and terrorism,” urging the registration of terrorism cases against the ones involved in such incidents.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is likely to witness more floods as a fresh rainy spell is likely to continue till July 25, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Monday, with the number of monsoon-related deaths rising to 221 since late June.

Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province has reported the highest number of deaths at 135, followed by 46 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 22 in Sindh, 16 in Balochistan, and one each in the federal capital of Islamabad and Azad Kashmir.

The deceased included 104 children, 77 men and 40 women, according to a latest situation report shared by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

“Heavy rains may generate flash floods in local streams of Chitral, Dir, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Buner, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi, Mardan, Murree, Galliyat, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Hill torrents of DG Khan, Northeast Punjab and Kashmir from July 21-25,” the PMD said on Monday.

“Heavy Downpour may cause urban floods in low-lying areas of Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sialkot, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Okara, Nowshera and Peshawar.”

During this period, landslides and mudslides may block roads in vulnerable areas of Murree, Galliyat, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, according to the PMD. Heavy rains, windstorms and lightning could also damage weak structures, electric poles, billboards, vehicles and solar panels.

Monsoon season brings South Asia 70 to 80 percent of its annual rainfall, arriving in early June in India and late June in Pakistan, and lasting through until September.

The annual rains are vital for agriculture and food security, and the livelihoods of millions of farmers. But increasingly erratic and extreme weather patterns are turning the rains into a destructive force.

In 2022, record-breaking monsoon rains combined with glacial melt submerged nearly a third of Pakistan, killing more than 1,700 people and displacing over 8 million. In May, at least 32 people were killed in severe storms, including strong hailstorms.