Pakistan: Man Slaughtered 10 Over Failed Proposal

A dispute over a marriage proposal in Pakistan resulted in a staggering body count, according to police in Khyber Pakhtunkwha province. Police say Gul Ahmed, enraged by a failed engagement to his cousin Naveeda Bibi, killed his uncle, aunt, and eight cousins, including Naveeda, yesterday morning, the AP reports. The 25-year-old escaped after the mass shooting in Charsadda district, and police sources tell the Nation that he was already a fugitive for killing his parents and two brothers in November last year in what is believed to have been a dispute over a dowry settlement for the proposed marriage to his cousin.

Dawn has a slightly different take on events before the massacre: The newspaper's sources say Ahmed allegedly killed his parents, a brother, and his sister-in-law on the orders of his uncle, then killed the uncle and his family after he kept delaying the wedding for assorted reasons. Ahmed reportedly had accomplices when he carried out the pre-dawn shooting, and entry points to neighboring regions to which he might try to flee have been tightened. (An engagement in neighboring India came to a less bloody end last month when the groom failed a math test.)