Father, brother, uncle and aunt shoot teenager and pitch her into a canal — but she crawls up bank alive [This is barbaric!]

Maria Golovnina, Reuters | June 6, 2014

REUTERS / YAQOOB SHAHZADSaba Maqsood, 18, recovers in a hospital bed in Hafizabad in Punjab Province on June 5, 2014, from bullet wounds in her right hand and cheek.

An 18-year-old Pakistani has survived being shot and thrown in a canal by her family for marrying the man she loved, police said, weeks after the “honor killing” of another woman drew worldwide condemnation.

Ali Akbar, a local police official, said Saba Maqsood had been attacked and shot by her father, uncle, brother and aunt and thrown into the waterway in the city of Hafizabad in Punjab province.

“It is an honor-related incident,” Akbar told Reuters.

“The victim, Saba … married her neighbor Muhammad Qaiser for love five days ago against the wishes of her family. They took her to Hafizabad, shot her twice and threw her in the canal after putting her in a sack, presuming that she was dead.”

Akbar said Maqsood had been wounded in her cheek and right hand. Her relatives fled the scene, and after minutes in the water Maqsood regained consciousness and managed to struggle to the bank, where two passers-by helped her.

“She is a brave girl. She came out of the canal and approached a nearby fuel station from where a rescue team rushed her to hospital,” he said.

Many conservative Pakistani families believe it is dishonorable for a woman to fall in love and choose her own husband.