A PAKISTANI woman who was brutally beaten, shot and dumped in a canal by her relatives for marrying against their wishes has survived her harrowing ordeal, police say.
Saba Maqsood, 19, was shot twice and beaten by her father, uncle and two other close relatives on Tuesday after they learned she had secretly married.
Police have since launched a manhunt for her alleged attackers.
The incident occurred in Gujranwala town, about 70km north of Lahore, the capital of central Punjab province where a woman was murdered last month in broad daylight by her relatives outside a courthouse in a case that caused global outrage.
“First they brutally beat her (Saba) and then shot her twice. She was then put in a sack and thrown in a canal,” police investigator Zabitay Khan told AFP.
“They had presumed her dead but she managed to open the sack and came out of the canal,” Khan said, adding Saba had married her neighbour against the wishes of her parents.
Backlash ... Human rights activists hold placards during a protest in Islamabad against the killing of a pregnant woman, who was beaten to death with bricks by her own family. Picture: Aamir Qureshi Source: AFP
Police were alerted to the teenager’s plight after she reached a security guard at a petrol pump near the canal.
Shiraz Farooqi, a doctor in a main hospital in Hafiz Abad, where the girl was under medical treatment told AFP that she was in a stable condition and recovering from her ordeal.
Many Pakistani women have no say in who they marry and disobeying the wishes of relatives is believed to bring shame on the whole family.
Last year 869 women died in so-called “honour killings” according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
But Pakistan’s blood-money laws allow a victim’s family to forgive the murderer, which makes prosecuting so-called “honour” cases difficult because the killer is usually a relative.
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