Two sisters were killed by their father and brother in the Punjab province over a love marriage, the police said on Wednesday.

The incident took place in Vehari, some 350 km from Lahore on Tuesday.

According to police the victims — Nishat, and Afshan who were in their early 20s — left their house last month and got married in court with the men of their choice.

A Panchayat meeting held at the request of the sisters’ father ordered the families of the grooms to hand over the married girls to their parents.

“As the grooms’ families complied with the Panchayat’s order, both girls were handed over to their parents. On Tuesday, the girls’ father Saeed and brother Asim along with others shot the girls dead at their house after torturing them,” police said.

The police said that they arrested the father of the murdered girls. A case has been registered against the perpetrators under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the data provided by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, around 1,000 women are killed in the name of honour every year in the country.

A young girl or a married woman is put to death for running away from home with her acquaintances, marrying without the family’s consent or having an illicit affair with someone.

But when the cases against the killer brothers, sons, parents, or other close relatives of these women are filed in the courts, usually their close relatives and the plaintiffs forgive them and they escape punishment.

Balochistan accident

At least three persons were killed and 12 were injured early on Thursday morning after a bus caught fire following a collision with a motorcycle in Balochistan province, officials said.

Lasbela Senior Superintendent of Police Captain (Retd) Naveed Alam said the bus was heading from Quetta to Karachi when the accident occurred in Lasbela’s Uthal tehsil, Dawn newspaper reported. The motorcyclist, who was carrying petrol, reportedly collided with the bus, resulting in the fire.

The police and rescue officials rushed to the site of the incident after receiving the alert and immediately began rescue efforts, Alam said.

The motorcyclist died on the spot, while two more charred bodies were found in the bus, Alam said.

Seven injured passengers, including children, were first taken out of the vehicle by breaking its windowpanes, the police said.