KARACHI: At least two men have been arrested in South Pakistan after a woman in her 20’s was found tortured to death along a main highway last week following a row with her husband’s family involving the tribal tradition of ‘watta satta’ or bride exchange, a senior police official told Arab News on Saturday.
The tradition is a form of marriage involving an arranged, reciprocal exchange of spouses between two families, where a pair usually consisting of a brother and sister are married from one family to another pair from another family-- usually a bride for a bride.
A first information report (FIR) was lodged against the woman’s husband, his brother and another relative by the deceased’s father on the insistence of police.
“We arrested the woman’s husband and his brother who confessed to torturing her but said she was at her father’s home [at the time of death]. Due to this and the suspicious behavior of the father, we are also investigating him,” Jamshoro’s senior superintendent of police, Amjad Sheikh, told Arab News.
The deceased, identified as Waziran Chachar, was married five years ago with the understanding that her brother would eventually be married to her husband’s sister, a custom built on a common promise in Pakistan’s rural areas.
“When Waziran’s father demanded their girl for his son, the family refused,” a local police officer, Rasool Bux Shaikh, told Arab News.
Following the refusal, a row broke out between the families, and two weeks ago Waziran’s father brought her to his home, threatening divorce until a jirga-- an assembly of local elders and leaders-- convinced him to let her go back to her husband’s home.
Waziran’s body was found in the early hours of the morning on June 28 along the Indus highway near the village of Wada Chhachar in Sindh where she lived, Shaikh said.
The custom of Watta Satta, which translates to ‘give and take,’ has long been criticized by human rights organizations due to its underlying threat of retaliation and violence meted out to women as punishments in case of family rows.
According to the results of an initial post-mortem report, Waziran was killed by a blunt weapon. The police are waiting on more conclusive results.
“This can be a car, stone or any other object which is not sharp. We are investigating the case, and digital forensics (of mobile phones) and a detailed post-mortem report will determine who has killed the woman and how,” SSP Sheikh said.
Pakistani woman tortured to death over bride-exchange row in Sindh province
https://arab.news/vnxaa
Pakistani woman tortured to death over bride-exchange row in Sindh province
- Deceased’s husband and brother-in-law are in police custody
- Rural tradition of ‘Watta Satta’ usually translates into ‘a bride for a bride’
Pakistan says will press ahead with trilateral cooperation with China and Bangladesh
- Islamabad signals closer engagement with Dhaka amid shifting regional dynamics
- Trilateral platform gains traction after recent China-Pakistan strategic talks last week
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday it would continue to pursue a trilateral cooperation framework with China and Bangladesh aimed at boosting regional connectivity, trade and development, as consultations among the three countries move forward.
The framework, launched last year at the senior officials’ level, has gained renewed attention as ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh improve following years of limited engagement, while Dhaka’s relations with India, a longtime archrival of Pakistan, have come under strain amid domestic political upheaval.
Addressing reporters on Thursday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Islamabad remained committed to the Pakistan-China-Bangladesh cooperation mechanism and intended to follow up on earlier consultations to deliver “practical outcomes.”
“On the Pakistan, Bangladesh and China mechanism, if you recall, a meeting took place last year [2025] at the level of vice ministers and foreign secretaries,” Andrabi told a weekly media briefing, adding that Pakistan looked forward to “positive outcomes” in line with an agreed joint communiqué.
“So of course, the consultations between the three of us would continue in the future to strive for outcomes which are beneficial for the peace, progress and prosperity of our people,” he said when asked specifically about Bangladesh’s role in the framework.
The trilateral cooperation was also referenced in a joint press communiqué issued after the Seventh Round of the China-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue held last week.
“The two sides expressed readiness to continue leveraging the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’
Dialogue and the China-Bangladesh-Pakistan cooperation mechanism to deliver new outcomes,” the statement said.
Andrabi said Pakistan’s engagement with China would continue across bilateral and trilateral formats, underscoring Islamabad’s preference for cooperative regional approaches focused on economic development rather than bloc politics.
Bangladesh was part of Pakistan until 1971, when it gained independence following a bloody war of independence. Relations between the two countries have shown signs of improvement in recent months, as Dhaka recalibrates its foreign policy after the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024. India has so far declined Bangladesh’s request to extradite Hasina, who fled to New Delhi after violent student-led protests.
In a related development, Pakistan’s Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu earlier this week held talks with a high-level Bangladeshi defense delegation on strengthening air force cooperation, including the potential sale of JF-17 Thunder fighter jets jointly developed by Pakistan and China.
