Pakistani honour victim, 14, dies from wounds

KARACHI, May 22 (Reuters) A 14-year old Pakistani girl has died a month after being shot four times in an attempted ''honour killing'' in the southern city of Karachi, police said today.

Nur Jehan was shot in the stomach, leg, knee and arm in Gadap on the outskirts of Karachi on April 19 and left for dead by her relatives, who accused her of having sex with a young man.

She crawled out of the ditch onto a road to scream for help and was rescued by a passer-by and admitted under police protection to a state-run hospital in Karachi.

But her condition worsened early yesterday morning.

''She died due to a stomach infection caused by the bullet wound,'' investigating police officer Jahan Khan Niazi told Reuters.

Police have already arrested three men accused of helping her relatives try to kill her.

Niazi said Nur Jehan's body could not be released, as police were still hunting for her parents, who were kidnapped by their relatives last month.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says around a thousand women are killed every year in Pakistan in the name of honour killing.

Most of these women are killed by their husbands or male relatives after being accused of having sex outside marriage.

REUTERS CH PM1410