Pakistan soldier stoned to death over affair

A Pakistani soldier was tied to a car and stoned to death on the orders of a tribal court following allegations that he had an affair with a local woman.

The soldier, Anwar Din, 27, had started the relationship with the woman on a previous posting to the semi-autonomous tribal areas, according to reports. He was reassigned to a different posting but had returned in recent days to see the woman, 19-year-old Intizar Bibi.

According to Reuters, residents caught the couple and brought them before tribal elders. At a meeting on Monday, the elders decided that the soldier be executed according to Islamic law.

Officials said that the soldier was taken to a graveyard where the couple had been found, tied to the vehicle and stoned. He was also shot.

“The girl left her home on Monday and met Anwar Din, when villagers saw them,” said Munir Hussain, head of the local council, or jirga, that sentenced the soldier to death. “We took the girl into custody and took the boy to the local graveyard where he was stoned to death and buried.”

While not unheard of, incidents of stoning are not common in Pakistan. When they do take place, it is usually women who are the victims.

The fate of the woman accused in this incident remains unclear. Some reports suggested she too had been killed, while others said she was being held in custody.

The incident happened in the Parachinar area of the Kurram tribal agency, one of several areas along the border with Afghanistan that have never been under the full control of the central authorities and where tribal elders hold huge influence.