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KARACHI: A viral video of the “honor killing” of a woman and her lover in a remote part of Pakistan has ignited national outrage, prompting scrutiny of long-standing tribal codes and calls for justice in a country where such killings often pass in silence.

While hundreds of so-called honor killings are reported in Pakistan each year, often with little public or legal response, the video of a woman and man accused of adultery being taken to the desert by a group of men to be killed has struck a nerve.

The video shows the woman, Bano Bibi, being handed a Qur'an by a man identified by police as her brother. “Come walk seven steps with me, after that you can shoot me,” she says, and she walks forward a few feet and stops with her back to the men.

The brother, Jalal Satakzai, then shoots her three times and she collapses. Seconds later he shoots and kills the man, Ehsan Ullah Samalani, whom Bano was accused of having an affair with.

Once the video of the killings in Pakistan’s Balochistan province went viral, it brought swift government action and condemnation from politicians, rights groups and clerics.

Civil rights lawyer Jibran Nasir said, though, the government’s response was more about performance than justice.

“The crime occurred months ago, not in secrecy but near a provincial capital, yet no one acted until 240 million witnessed the killing on camera,” he said.

“This isn’t a response to a crime. It’s a response to a viral moment.”

Police have arrested 16 people in Balochistan’s Nasirabad district, including a tribal chief and the woman’s mother.

The mother, Gul Jan Bibi, said the killings were carried out by family and local elders based on “centuries-old Baloch traditions,” and not on the orders of the tribal chief.

“We did not commit any sin,” she said in a video statement that also went viral. “Bano and Ehsan were killed according to our customs.”

She said her daughter, who had three sons and two daughters, had run away with Ehsan and returned after 25 days.

Police said Bano’s younger brother, who shot the couple, remains at large.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said it was a “test” case and vowed to dismantle the illegal tribal courts operating outside the law.

Police had earlier said a jirga, an informal tribal council that issues extrajudicial rulings, had ordered the killings.

#JusticeForCouple

The video sparked online condemnation, with hashtags like #JusticeForCouple and #HonourKilling trending. The Pakistan Ulema Council, a body of religious scholars, called the killings “un-Islamic” and urged terrorism charges against those involved.

Dozens of civil society members and rights activists staged a protest on Saturday in the provincial capital Quetta, demanding justice and an end to parallel justice systems.

“Virality is a double-edged sword,” said Arsalan Khan, a cultural anthropologist and professor who studies gender and masculinity.

“It can pressure the state into action, but public spectacle can also serve as a strategy to restore ghairat, or perceived family honor, in the eyes of the community.”

Pakistan outlawed honor killings in 2016 after the murder of social media star Qandeel Baloch, closing a loophole that allowed perpetrators to go free if they were pardoned by family members. Rights groups say enforcement remains weak, especially in rural areas where tribal councils still hold sway.

“In a country where conviction rates often fall to single digits, visibility – and the uproar it brings – has its advantages,” said constitutional lawyer Asad Rahim Khan.

“It jolts a complacent state that continues to tolerate jirgas in areas beyond its writ.”

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported at least 405 honor killings in 2024. Most victims are women, often killed by relatives claiming to defend family honor.

Khan said rather than enforcing the law, the government has spent the past year weakening the judiciary and even considering reviving jirgas in former tribal areas.

“It’s executive inaction, most shamefully toward women in Balochistan,” Khan said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in recent months has asked senior ministers to evaluate proposals to revive jirgas in Pakistan’s former tribal districts, including potential engagement with tribal elders and Afghan authorities.

The Prime Minister’s Office and Pakistan’s information minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Viral and then forgotten?

The Balochistan killings were raised in Pakistan’s Senate, where the human rights committee condemned the murders and called for action against those who convened the jirga. Lawmakers also warned that impunity for parallel justice systems risked encouraging similar violence.

Activists and analysts, however, say the outrage is unlikely to be sustained.

“There’s noise now, but like every time, it will fade,” said Jalila Haider, a human rights lawyer in Quetta.

“In many areas, there is no writ of law, no enforcement. Only silence.”

Haider said the killings underscore the state’s failure to protect citizens in under-governed regions like Balochistan, where tribal power structures fill the vacuum left by absent courts and police.

“It’s not enough to just condemn jirgas,” Haider said.

“The real question is: why does the state allow them to exist in the first place?”