Police suspect that Islamic militants are responsible for the kidnapping and beheading of two women in Pakistan on Friday. The women, identified as Maino and Malaki, were abducted by five armed men on Thursday as they rode in an auto rickshaw, the Associated Press reports. On Friday, their bodies were discovered outside a village about 12 miles south from where they were abducted. A note found with their bodies accused the two women, who are both in their mid-40s, of being prostitutes. A senior police officer told the BBC that the note mentioned “acts of obscenity,” which refers to prostitution, and a warning that the assailants “have started doing this to end obscenity in the area.”
Daily India further reports that the note threatened more similar actions, saying, “Women involved in immoral activities will meet the same fate.”
A rash of militant violence has been used in the northwestern region of Pakistan by extremists who aim to impose “Taliban-style social rules,” the AP reports. Shops selling music and movies have been repeatedly targeted, and barbers have been threatened not to shave off any customers’ beards.
