Written By: Farrukh Saif & Ume Laila
Within the bustling chaos of Karachi’s Clifton shoreline, close to the China Port, two lifeless our bodies have been found—one in all a person, the opposite a girl. What at first appeared like simply one other crime in a metropolis of shadows quickly unraveled right into a heartbreaking story of affection, religion, and violence.
The victims have been recognized as 28-year-old Sajid Masih and 25-year-old Sana Asif, each hailing from Gujranwala, Punjab. Their love defied boundaries—of faith, custom, and societal expectations. Sajid, a younger man from a poor Christian household who labored feeding buffaloes at a landlord’s farmhouse, Sajid and Sana fell in love and wished to get married, however custom and spiritual variations stood of their means. Collectively, they determined to flee their hometown and went to Karachi to start out a brand new life.
In Pakistan, a Christian man can’t legally marry a Muslim girl, so typically Christian males convert to Islam in courtroom to get married after which proceed residing as Christians afterward. This was the case with Sajid, who transformed to Islam on July 20. On that very day, he married Sana in a courtroom ceremony—a testomony to their bond and the braveness it took to make their love official regardless of all obstacles.
However their happiness was short-lived. Simply fifteen days after they fled Gujranwala to start out a brand new life in Karachi, their love story led to a pool of blood.
Earlier than this, the couple launched a video on social media interesting to the Authorities of Sindh and senior police officers for cover. Regardless of their pleas, no safety was supplied. Within the video, Sana defined that her brothers and household have been harassing and threatening them with homicide. Sajid’s brother, uncle, and cousins had even been arrested, but no motion was taken to make sure the couple’s security.
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The Evening of Horror: A Household Torn Aside
Karachi Police revealed that the couple was shot within the head at shut vary; the bullets pierced via, leaving no probability of survival. Two completely different firearms have been used, suggesting a minimum of two assailants. The shells—two 9mm and one .30 bore—have been collected from the scene and despatched for forensic evaluation. The murders occurred through the night time, and it was close by laborers who first stumbled upon their our bodies and alerted the police.
Regardless of the brutality, the killers spared their telephones and money, hinting this was no theft—it was a killing fueled by rage and vengeance.
Sajid’s mother and father, devastated, rushed to Karachi upon listening to the information. With trembling voices outdoors Boat Basin police station, his mom cried,
“We didn’t even find out about their marriage. Sana’s household burned our home in Gujranwala. My son has been murdered, and now our personal lives are in peril.”
Their concern is actual—honor killings in Pakistan typically goal not simply the couple, but in addition their households. For Sajid’s mother and father, grief is laced with dread.
Honor or Horror?
Sana belonged to Budha Goraya, a village close to Tatlay Aali in Gujranwala. Fifteen days in the past, she advised her household she was visiting her aunt. As an alternative, she selected love over concern, freedom over submission. However society had different plans.
Her brother, Waqas, had earlier filed a kidnapping case in opposition to Sajid and his buddies. Now, he and three others have been arrested in reference to the killings. In the meantime, Sana’s household, enraged by her defiance, reportedly torched Sajid’s home again in Gujranwala—a merciless punishment to erase what they noticed as disgrace.
Justice within the Shadows: A Cry That Should Be Heard
The police have recorded Sajid’s father’s assertion, promising extra arrests and additional investigation. However will justice really prevail? Or will this be simply one other case buried underneath societal silence and the load of so-called “honor”?
Sajid and Sana’s story isn’t just a story of forbidden love—it’s an indictment of a tradition the place love can nonetheless value lives, the place religion can divide hearts, and the place younger {couples} need to run from those that ought to shield them essentially the most.
As Sajid’s grieving household pleads,
“We demand justice. The federal government should shield us.”
Their voices echo a bigger query—What number of extra Sajids and Sana’s should die earlier than we, as a society, say sufficient?
Their love was pure, however their destiny was merciless. Two younger souls dreamed of a life collectively; as a substitute, they grew to become martyrs of a world that also fears love greater than hate.
Could their story stir hearts, awaken conscience, and remind us that no religion, no custom, no honor is definitely worth the value of a human life.
The Double Requirements in Pakistan:
In Pakistan, there’s a painful double normal that everybody sees however few dare to speak about. When Christian ladies are kidnapped, pressured to transform to Islam, and married to their abductors, the system typically treats it as one thing regular. These instances hardly ever get correct investigations, and the victims are left to undergo in silence whereas their households battle a dropping battle for justice.
However when a Christian man marries a Muslim girl willingly—when two adults select one another out of affection—the response is totally completely different. Society doesn’t settle for it. The person is hunted, the lady is labeled as dishonored, and in lots of instances, the couple’s story ends in tragedy.
The current case of Sajid Masih and Sana Asif is one other reminder of this unfairness. They cherished one another, obtained married legally, and nonetheless paid for it with their lives. Their households now reside in concern, and the identical society that stays quiet about pressured conversions is fast to sentence their union.
This isn’t nearly one couple; it’s a few system that applies completely different guidelines based mostly on faith and gender. Till these double requirements are addressed, extra younger lives will proceed to be misplaced to the identical cycle of hatred and hypocrisy.
Lately, one other horrific episode of honor killing occurred in Daghari, Balochistan, the place a pair was shot useless by tribal elders in an alleged honor killing. Disturbingly, each the victims and perpetrators belonged to the identical household, permitting the crime to go unpunished underneath the guise of household “honor” and tribal customs.
Pakistan continues to witness horrifying incidents of honor killings, revealing the deep-rooted intolerance and oppressive traditions embedded in components of its society. In mid-July, the tragic homicide of Sidra Bibi, a younger girl from Rawalpindi, shocked the nation and as soon as once more uncovered the brutal actuality of honor killings.
Sidra, solely 19 years outdated, selected to marry a person of her personal will—a call that ought to have been hers alone. However in Pakistan, the place conventional controls typically override authorized and human rights, Sidra’s defiance of her household’s needs grew to become a demise sentence. An area jirga decreed that Sidra had no proper to reside. She was suffocated with a pillow, her neck damaged, and her physique buried secretly throughout heavy rain. The grave was flattened to keep away from suspicion, however the police later uncovered the crime.
