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LAHORE: The father and the ex-husband of an alleged “honor killing” victim are among nine people arrested in eastern Pakistan in connection with the young woman’s death, police said.

Police said Sidra Bibi, 18, was killed on the orders of a local council of elders in the garrison city of Rawalpindi after she married a man of her choice.

Some of her relatives are alleged to have buried her body and flattened the land to erase evidence of a grave, police official Aftab Hussain said Monday. The victim was suffocated using a pillow placed over her face, he added.

The arrests came after authorities exhumed the body and carried out an autopsy, which confirmed she had been tortured before being killed.

The case has drawn widespread condemnation in a country where honor killings are still common.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 405 women were killed in 2024 in such cases, compared with 226 in 2023.

“The actual number is believed to be higher due to underreporting,” said Sadia Bukhari, a member of the commission’s council.

Honor killings, in which family members kill women for actions perceived as bringing shame to the family such as choosing their spouse, have increased in recent years.

Earlier this month, police in southwestern Balochistan province arrested 11 suspects after a video shared online appeared to show a young couple being fatally shot for marrying without their families’ approval.

Police confirmed the authenticity of the footage, saying the killings happened in the Deghari district in the province of Balochistan.

In January, police arrested a Pakistani man suspected of killing his US-born 15-year-old daughter for refusing to stop posting videos on TikTok, a platform with more than 54 million users in the country.

“These so-called honor killings reveal a deep-rooted mindset that views women as the property of men,” Bukhari said. “Most women in Pakistan face discrimination from childhood through adulthood.”

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is open to a composite dialogue with India to address all outstanding disputes, including Kashmir and the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said, according to state media on Tuesday, as a ceasefire between the nuclear-armed neighbors continues to hold.

Dar’s comments came after an intense four-day military standoff between the two countries, triggered by a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists in April. India blamed Pakistan for the assault, a charge Islamabad denied while calling for an impartial international probe.

The escalation ended on May 10 with a ceasefire brokered by the United States, which said at the time that both countries had agreed to engage at a neutral venue to resolve their differences.

While Pakistan welcomed the prospect of such talks, offering to enter wide-ranging negotiations to defuse tensions and normalize ties, India publicly declined any political engagement. Dar was asked during a news conference in New York whether there had been any follow-up on that offer during his recent meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, which he said had taken place in a cordial environment.

“Military-to-military communications are taking place [between Pakistan and India],” he told the media, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan, “but there is no contact on the political side.”

“Pakistan is ready for dialogue with India,” he continued. “We seek a composite dialogue that includes Kashmir as well as other issues, including the Indus Waters Treaty.”

Dar reiterated Pakistan’s concerns over India’s unilateral suspension of the IWT, which governs water sharing between the two countries and has been considered a vital pillar of regional stability since its signing in 1960.

India suspended the treaty on April 23, one day after the militant attack in Kashmir. Pakistan warned that disrupting access to rivers would be viewed as “an act of war.”

Dar told the media his country’s defense preparedness was “strong and vigilant.”

He also spoke about Pakistan’s bilateral ties with the US, saying he had invited Secretary Rubio to visit Islamabad.

The deputy PM noted that his country’s diplomatic efforts also extended to neighboring Afghanistan and Iran, with a focus on enhancing regional connectivity through trade and transport corridors.