MULTAN: Armed men cut off the ears and nose of a man who married a woman from their tribe against their will, after he and his family refused to hand her over, police said on Wednesday. The attackers also chopped off the ears of the man’s brother, while severing his mother’s hand in the latest reported “honour” crime in the country’s conservative rural areas. Mohammad Iqbal’s wife, Shehnaz, was not at home when about 15-armed members of her clan carried out the attack in Multan on Tuesday, demanding that she be returned to them. “The assailants, who were armed with small arms, daggers and axes, tortured Iqbal and cut off his ears and nose when he refused to produce Shenhaz,” Naeem-ul-Hassan, a deputy superintendent of police, told Reuters, adding that five suspects had so far been arrested.
“They dragged us on the floor and thrashed us before cutting our limbs,” Mohammad Yasin, Iqbal’s brother, told Reuters from Nishtar hospital, where he was being treated along with his brother and mother. Shehnaz married Iqbal out of choice last year and the couple left Multan along with Iqbal’s family apparently for fear of reprisals from Shehnaz’s relatives. The family returned to Multan recently to celebrate Eidul Azha.