Pakistani couple tied to tree, stoned to death

KARACHI, Jan 30 (Reuters) A Pakistani man and woman were tied to a tree and stoned to death on suspicion of committing adultery, police said today.

Hundreds of people are killed every year in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, most of them women in backward, rural communities, after being deemed to have dishonoured their families.

Police said they had arrested two people over the killing of the man and woman at the weekend in a village in Punjab province.

''The man and woman were relatives and were stoned to death by their relatives,'' senior police officer Zafar Bokhari told Reuters by telephone from the central city of Multan.

''The accused said they caught Ghulam Nabi and Elahi in a compromising position and killed them in a rage,'' he said.

Another relative of the victims reported the killings to the police who opened a double murder case against four people, Bokhari said.

The man and woman apparently pleaded their innocence but were caught by their relatives, tied to a tree and killed with bricks, he said.

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