Global outrage has been caused by the murder of an 18-year-old girl in a mountainous village in northwestern Pakistan, in Barsharyal, by her own fellow villagers, in one of the almost daily honor crimes in the country.

The order to kill her was given by the village elders because the girl appeared in photos and videos posted on social media, together with a friend, dancing with a boy.

Posting photos of women is considered a taboo subject in the region. The images went viral in the country and police in Pakistan are now investigating the 18-year-old’s murder, announcing that suspects include male relatives of the dead woman.

The police clarified that the woman was the victim of a homicide on Sunday, after the “jirga» of the village, as the councils of elders are known, ordered the killing of the two girls in the photograph.

“Someone had uploaded (online) photographs of the two girls,” said Masood Khan, deputy superintendent of police of the Kolai-Palas district.

“They shot and killed one of them, while the police rescued the second“, he added, referring to villagers.

Sargent Irsad Hussain Shah, head of the interim government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said he had instructed police to arrest those responsible for the 18-year-old’s murder – but so far they have not no arrests.

The second woman was taken safely to her family after a judge made an inquiry into her safety.

The boys in the video in question have gone into hidingas his families feared reprisals from the girls’ families.

Hundreds of honor killings every year

Every year, hundreds of women in Pakistan are victims of honor crimes committed by relatives who claim to be acting in defense of family honor, according to rights groups, usually in deeply conservative rural areas of the country.

Such killings are often carried out for alleged offences, such as elopement or cohabitation with a man outside of marriage or other violations of religious and cultural values ​​of women’s modestydespite campaigns by human rights groups and stricter laws.

Last year an appeals court acquitted the brother of Qadil Baloch, a hugely popular social media personality, of her 2016 honor killing, which had sparked a national outcry and changes to honor crime laws.