Village Proud of Double Honor Killings

(Balla, India) Because it is taboo for a man and woman in the same village to marry, a young couple was killed. The village rejoices now that its honor has been restored. Absolutely sickening.

Five armed men burst into the small room and courtyard at dawn, just as 21-year-old, 22-week pregnant, Sunita was drying her face on a towel.

They punched and kicked her stomach as she called out for her sleeping boyfriend "Jassa", 22-year-old Jasbir Singh, witnesses said. When he woke, both were dragged into waiting cars, driven away and strangled.

Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a sign that the family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded murder.

Police with the bodies of Sunita Devi, 21, and Jasbir Singh, 22, on May 9, 2008.
The village stands united in full support of the honor killings. Since Sunita and Jasbir were from the same village, they were viewed as brother and sister, a dishonorable union.

"From society's point of view, this is a very good thing," said 62-year-old farmer Balwan Arya, sitting smoking a hookah in the shade of a tree in a square with other elders from the village council or panchayat. "We have removed the blot."

Interestingly, the farmer used the term "we" which indicates community-wide culpability. Only four individuals, however, were arrested -- Sunita's father, an uncle and two cousins.

Notably, identifying this case as a double honor killing is disingenuous. My arithmetic puts the death toll at three when the unborn baby is included.