Pakistani girl who had been forced into marriage with a 45-year-old man at the age of 9 has been killed by her parents

Despair among human rights workers in Pakistan over a rash of so-called "honor killings" intensified when it was disclosed that a girl forced into marriage with a 45-year-old man at the age of nine had been killed by her parents because she asked for an annulment. The girl, Saira Nusrat Bibi, 17, who had been fighting a lonely but successful legal battle, was coming out of court in the Punjabi city of Sahiwal after being granted the annulment by a judge when she was surrounded by a group of men and shot in view of police.