Mother and younger brother of murdered Pakistani sisters return to Barcelona
Consul says upon arrival that 'very solid evidence' exists against suspects of 'honor killings'
The mother of the two Pakistani girls residing in Terrassa murdered in their home country returned to Barcelona on Sunday morning after some months in the south Asian territory.
Accompanied by her younger 12-year-old son, and brother of the two assassinated girls, Azra Bibi landed at El Prat airport.
Their two lives were saved by local police after the two crimes, according to the Pakistani consul in Barcelona, Mirza Salman, who also said that the relatives who allegedly perpetrated the crimes persuaded the girls to travel to Pakistan arguing Bibi was sick, which turned out to be false.
Asked by journalists, she did not reveal whether she will return to Terrassa, where she was living before spending some time in Pakistan, or whether she will use the social housing offered by the Catalan government.
Also talking to the press, Salman said that the police in the Asian country have "very solid evidence" against the suspects, who are in pre-trial detention.
He also said that the two sisters, Anisa and Arooj, were buried in Pakistan on May 21, the day after being murdered.
'Honor killing' of Pakistani women residing in Catalonia
Last year they married their cousins and applied for a spouse visa so that their husbands could travel to Europe. The Pakistani consul in Barcelona, Mirza Salman, said during an interview with the Catalan News Agency (ACN) this week that the girls had consented to the weddings.
Although not Spanish nationals, they had a residence permit in the Catalan city of Terrassa, around 30km northwest of Barcelona, for years.
Anisa and Arooj traveled to Pakistan on May 19. Their family had demanded they take their husbands back to Catalonia. The sisters had refused. Instead, they wanted to ask for a divorce once they were back in Catalonia, so that they could remarry in Spain. They were strangled and fatally shot in their sleep on May 20.
Police in the Pakistani city of Gujrat, in the Punjab region, have arrested six suspects in connection with the killings. Among the detainees, there are two brothers of the killed sisters.