LONDON: The British Government and rights activists have expressed concern over the reported increase in the number of "honour killings" involving mostly Asian immigrants.

The incidence has reportedly gone up despite the Government's repeated warnings and a vigorous campaign to create awareness that such practices are not only inhuman but also against the law of the land.

A spokesperson of the International Campaign Against Honour Killings said there had been a sharp rise in the number of women who felt threatened because their families did not approve of their marriage or relationship outside the community. Her organisation, she said, had saved the lives of at least a dozen such victims of domestic violence in the past year — mostly from Muslim families.

"Believe me, many of these women were in danger. Sometimes, families were paying for bounty hunters to look for them," Diana Nammi, co-founder of the organisation told The Sunday Telegraph attributing the spurt in "honour" killings to the fact that women had become more independent and were not willing to be pushed into forced marriages.

Echoing the growing concern on the issue, Ann Cryer, a Labour MP who represents a predominantly Asian immigrant constituency, said: "Often the triggers for these cases are marriages or relationships that the families don't agree with."

Her comments came as the brother and a cousin of a young woman of Pakistani origin, Samaira Nazir, were jailed for stabbing her to death because she wanted to marry an asylum-seeker.

The case dominated the headlines last week amid renewed warnings from rights campaigners that more needed to be done to combat such "barbaric" practices, believed to be prevalent mostly among Muslim families who have migrated to Britain from rural and tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"No force"

Muslim leaders said Islam did not permit such things. "Mainstream Islamic thought totally condemns the concept of honour killings. They mostly occur when women are being forced to marry, but Islam believes marriages should be based on willing consent and force should play no role whatsoever," said Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain.

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