A father angry that his eldest daughter married for love slit her throat as she slept, then killed three other daughters in a remote village in eastern Pakistan, police said Saturday.
Nazir Ahmad, a laborer in his 40s, feared the younger girls, aged 4 to 12, would follow in their 25-year-old sister’s footsteps, police officer Shahzad Gul said.
Hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan every year, many by male relatives, after they are accused of having affairs or marrying for love without their families’ consent.
Ahmad surrendered to police in Burewala, about 70 miles east of Multan, a main city in eastern Punjab province, Gul said.
“He told us today that he has killed his daughters, and we arrested him,” the officer said.
Gul said the man’s eldest daughter, Muqadas Bibi, had married the man of her choice against her father’s wishes several weeks ago.
Ahmad contacted his daughter this week, saying he was ready to forgive her, Gul said.
But during a visit to her parents’ house, Ahmad slit her throat as she slept and then killed the other three girls, Gul said, adding police were investigating whether any other relative helped in the killings.
He said police were also looking for Bibi’s husband.