Girl dies in Karachi one month after "honour" Attack
Pakistan Times National News Desk

KARACHI: A 14-year-old girl who was allegedly shot by her cousins in southern Pakistan on suspicion of having an affair with another man has died in hospital a month afterwards, police said Tuesday.

Noor Jehan was blasted five times in the arm, legs and stomach and dumped near a private hospital in Karachi's central district last month, police official Mohammad Akbar said.

"We have been looking for the attackers but now a fresh search has been launched after she succumbed to her injuries on Sunday," Akbar said.

Noor Jehan in an earlier statement to police had named her cousins Khadim Hussain and Mohammad Sajjan as the attackers, he said.

Hussain and Sajjan suspected that she had an affair with another man and had been threatening the family over this issue, Akbar said.

Before her death she told police that her cousins brought her to Karachi from her home in Larkana district and shot and dumped her near a hospital believing she had died, he said.

"It appeared that one of the two cousins wanted to marry her and on refusal killed her," Akbar said.

A leading Pakistani women's rights group, the Aurat Foundation has demanded a probe into the girl's death. "It appears to be a case of honour killing," foundation president Anis Haroon said.

The President last year signed into law a bill introducing the death penalty for honour killings.●