Pakistani boy strangled as tribal justice flouted

KARACHI, May 8 (Reuters) An 11-year-old boy was strangled by relatives who killed him rather than obey a tribal elders' order for them to marry one of their womenfolk to the child, police in Karachi said today.

The marriage had been ordered in compensation for the kidnapping of the boy's sister.

Mohammad Asif was killed yesterday, five months after his 15-year-old sister was abducted from their home in a poor part of the southern Pakistani city.

The children's widower father, Saeed Akbar, a rickshaw driver who hailed from northern Pakistan, appealed to a tribal jirga, or council, for justice after his daughter was snatched.

But after the jirga ordered the kidnappers to betroth one of their daughters to the boy, they began making threats, prompting Saeed Akbar to seek protection from the jirga.

''But before that they killed my innocent son in revenge,'' he said, describing how he saw smoke rising from his house after leaving for work and raced back to find his son's charred body.

''I rushed back and found the house was on fire. I called for help and we took out Asif's dead body.'' A post-mortem showed the boy was strangled and his body burned afterwards, according to police surgeon Liaquat Memon.

Three men, all brothers, and woman are accused of murdering the child, Sheikh Iqbal, an investigating police officer, told Reuters.

''We are still hunting for all four of them,'' he said.

Thousands of poor workers who have migrated from conservative rural areas of Pakistan to Karachi turn to elders in their clan to resolve family and other feuds instead of going to the police.

REUTERS DKS KP1613