Zakara Bibi Solangi holds a picture of her slain daughter Tasleem in Karachi. (Reuters)

Karachi, Oct. 27 (AP): A Pakistani man has claimed that his 17-year-old daughter was mauled by dogs and shot to death in front of him over a land dispute disguised as a so-called “honour killing”.

Speaking to reporters in Karachi today, Tasleem’s father said he was locked up in his home and forced to watch from a window as dogs chased his daughter and then mauled her when she fell down exhausted. She then was shot, he said.

Gulsher Solangi said the killing was the culmination of a land dispute. He said his nephew Ibrahim had beaten Tasleem throughout the five months of their marriage to pressure him to hand over his small farm. Faced with more threats, Gulsher said he had fled with his wife and another daughter and abandoned his home.

Ibrahim Solangi, 28, has been in custody ever since Tasleem’s death in March and is awaiting trial on murder charges, said Pir Mohammad Shah, the police chief of the Khairpur Mirs district in southern Pakistan. Tasleem’s husband was also her first cousin.

Human rights groups say hundreds of women are killed by male relatives every year in Pakistan for alleged infidelity or other perceived slights to the family name, and activists say many more cases go unreported.

Zameer Hussain Solangi, the girl’s father-in-law, claimed today that his son confessed to the killing under police torture and that the allegation regarding the dogs was “baseless”. He said a tribal council later declared the dead woman an adulterer and compensated the husband with her jewellery. The girl’s father claimed that the tribal council, chaired by a local chieftain, declared his daughter an adulterer in May to mask the land-grab.

Female MPs staged a walkout from the National Assembly today to press for action on better protections for women after a national newspaper published details of Tasleem Solangi’s death.

“How long will women be buried alive and made to face hungry dogs? Women are not given their rights,” opposition lawmaker Semi Siddiqui said. Shah, the police chief, said he knew nothing of the alleged land-grab or the dogs and promised to investigate further.

Former President Pervez Musharraf watered down rape laws that had made it hard for victims to prove their case.