Pakistan, Oct. 8 -- A man and a woman were shot dead at separate places in Mansehra on Tuesday after spending three months in hiding. One alleged assailant has been arrested and two FIRs registered. Less than two weeks earlier, two women were killed in the same district in another suspected honour crime, one allegedly because she was believed to have helped the other leave home. In July, a policeman and a 22-year-old woman were allegedly killed in Upper Kohistan after being condemned under a custom associated with so-called honour.

There is no honour in honour killing. What these cases expose is control enforced through fear and, at its worst, murder. In September, a second woman was allegedly killed in Mansehra because the accused belie...