'Honour attack' on Pakistani man

Mr Iqbal is recovering from the attack in hospital

Armed men seriously assaulted a Pakistani man who married a woman without the consent of her family, police in the city of Multan say.

The injured man was reported to have had his ears and nose severely cut.

Mohammed Iqbal told The Associated Press news agency that about 30 male relatives of his wife carried out the attack in Punjab province.

He said they stormed his mother's village during the Eid holiday, demanding vengeance for "dishonour".

Broken fingers

"You have mixed our honour with dirt," 22-year-old Mr Iqbal quoted his attackers as saying from his hospital bed.

He said that he was assaulted with a dagger and an axe in the attack.

Mr Iqbal said that they also slit his brother's ears, and shot his mother in the thigh.

Honour attacks are common in conservative areas

Police in Multan say that seven men suspected of involvement in the attack in Inayatpur Mahota village have been arrested and 22 other suspects are still being pursued.

Mr Iqbal's wife was not in the house at the time of the attack.

She has been living in another town following a similar assault against Mr Iqbal two months ago in which he reportedly suffered broken fingers.

Mr Iqbal, who is now heavily scarred, told AP that he and his wife had done nothing wrong when they married last year.

Conservative areas

"We married in court with our consent. We like each other. Islam gives us permission to marry out of our own choice," he said.

Days after their wedding, Mr Iqbal said police arrested him following allegations by his wife's family that he had abducted her.

He was only released after his wife gave a statement in a court that she married him of her own free will.

The couple have a three-month-old daughter.

Correspondents say that honour attacks are commonplace in deeply conservative rural areas in Pakistan, where many men consider it an insult if their female relatives marry without their consent.

Offenders are rarely punished because of poor policing, corruption and legal loopholes.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, citing government figures, said in a report last year that about 1,000 women die annually in honour killings.