ISLAMABAD: A man allegedly killed his daughter for not waking him up for sehri, a pre-dawn meal eaten before a day of fasting begins in the holy month of Ramadan, local media reported on Thursday.

Ramadan marks the month in which the Qur’an was revealed on Prophet Muhammad. Fasting, by abstaining from food and water from sunrise to sunset, is one of the five pillars of Islam, a grueling routine the devout repeat every day for a month. Fasting is meant to bring worshippers closer to God through steady remembrance, reflection and sacrifice and to challenge them to focus on good deeds and thoughts, rather than on material desires and instant gratification.

Pakistan’s Geo News channel reported that Gulzar Ahmed, a resident of Pakpattan in the central Punjab province, had shot his daughter dead because she did not wake him up in the morning for the sehri meal. The news channel reported that police had lodged a case against Ahmed on the complaint of the girl’s uncle Mukhtar Ahmed and an investigation was ongoing.

Ahmed was reportedly at large and police had launched a search to arrest him.

In 2013, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that a man shot his sister in the head in Rawalpindi for not serving him the sehri meal on time.

On July 18, 2013, Shabana Parveen, 23, was visiting her parents’ home from the home of her husband for a few days when she was killed by her brother who was angered that she had not prepared the sehri meal on time.

A Thomson Reuters Foundation poll found Pakistan to be the sixth most dangerous country for women in 2018. A Human Rights Watch report last year estimated that 1,000 “honor killings” — the practice of relatives murdering girls or women because they think the victim has brought shame or dishonor on the family — take place in Pakistan each year.