Police in northwestern Pakistan have arrested two men on charges they murdered two teenage female relatives after a video was posted online of the victims allegedly acting intimately with a man.The brief mobile phone video showed a young man recording himself with three girls and reportedly kissing them. An area police officer said Sunday the girls, aged 16 and 18, were shot dead last week in the deeply conservative North Waziristan district, bordering Afghanistan.
 
Mohammad Nawaz said the suspects under detention are the father of the first victim and the brother of the second victim. He said the men had “confessed” to their crime “in the name of (family) honor,” telling police the slain girls were later buried in their native village.
 
The video was apparently shot nearly a year ago, but it only recently emerged on social media and went viral, the Pakistani English language newspaper Dawn reported.  
 
Police said they were searching for the third girl and the man in the video to ensure they do not suffer the same fate. The two were believed to be still alive, according to initial police investigations.
 
The Pakistani district is a predominantly ethnic Pashtun region where women often have few rights and live under a strict “honor” code, with limited freedom to venture out of their homes without being accompanied by a male relative.  
 
Despite being declared illegal four years ago, so-called incidents of “honor killings” continue to claim the lives of hundreds of women in Pakistan every year for allegedly bringing shame on their families.  
 
Pakistan’s leading independent rights watchdog in a statement Sunday condemned the “barbaric” murder of the teenage girls. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) demanded the perpetrators be brought to justice and steps be taken to ensure the security of the remaining people featured in the video scandal.
 
“Antiquated — and lethal — notions that ‘honor’ resides in women’s bodies and actions still prevail across Pakistan, and it will take far more than laws to effect a change when perpetrators of ‘honor’ crimes continue to act with impunity,” the statement said.
…