A heavily pregnant woman and her husband were killed with bullets to their heads in an apparent case of honour killing in the suburbs of Pakistan’s Punjab province.

The dead, identified as Muhammad Shakil, 30, and Aqsa, 26, were allegedly killed for “honour” by the woman’s brother who had recently returned from Saudi Arabia.

Shakil who lived in Chak No. 41 JB in Faisalabad worked in a government school whereas his wife Aqsa worked as a health visitor in the Rural Health Centre. The couple had married four years ago.

According to details, three days ago Aqsa’s brother along with her mother, maternal uncle and another accomplice barged into the couple’s house, mercilessly beat them and afterwards took the couple to an unidentified location, an Express News report said.

On Thursday night the bodies of Aqsa and Shakil were recovered from Gujra-Jang Branch canal.

An autopsy revealed that the deceased were killed with gun fire to their head. Visible marks of injuries were also found on their bodies.

The postmortem report also showed that Aqsa was pregnant and was to deliver the baby in four days.

Gojra Police have buried the bodies of the victims as the couple’s parents did not receive the corpses.

Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives in conservative Muslim Pakistan each year on the pretext of defending what is seen as family honour.