New Delhi – Five young people in northern India are believed to have been murdered by their families or partner’s relatives in suspected honour killings, in three separate incidents this week, police said Saturday.

Police arrested the father and brother of a 19-year-old Hindu woman Friday on suspicion of murdering her and her 23-year-old lover, both from the lowest Dalit caste.

The relatives allegedly strangled the couple after catching them having sex at their home in Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh state, police said.

“We have arrested the father and brother of the girl. They told us they killed them because she had brought disrepute to the family,” Bhushan Verma, investigating officer in Shamli, told AFP.

“We are investigating to see if there were more relatives involved. Both were strangled to death.”

It came after another Hindu couple in their 20s were Thursday found dead in nearby Saharanpur district, also in Uttar Pradesh, after their families allegedly objected to their relationship.

Police have not ruled out suicide after the couple were found hanging inside the man’s house.

“It could be honour killing or suicide. We are waiting for the post mortem reports to confirm the cause of death,” Pradeep Kumar Yadav, police chief of Saharanpur, told AFP.

Yadav said the couple were in a three year relationship and wanted to marry but faced resistance from both families.

Both of the deceased couples were biologically unrelated to one another.

Pakistani social media star killed for ‘violating family’s honour’

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However, in each case, the couples belonged to the same “gotra” – or kinship group – something considered incestuous by many Hindus despite the lack of biological links, and which can be a cause for such killings.

In a third case, police on Thursday found the body of a 16-year-old Muslim boy buried near an edible oil factory in neighbouring Muzaffarnagar district, after he earlier went missing from his home.

Police said the teenager was in a relationship with the niece of the factory’s Hindu owner, adding her relatives strangled him to protect the “honour of the family”.

“We have arrested the girl’s brother, uncle and cousin for the murder,” Deepak Kumar, police chief of Muzaffarnagar district, told AFP.

Marriages outside one’s caste or religion still attract censure across India.

Honour killings – which often see couples targeted because their families or communities disapprove of their relationship – have been carried out for centuries in the country, especially in rural areas.

They are typically enacted by close relatives or village elders to protect what is seen as the family’s reputation in a hereditary caste system.

United Nations statistics suggest 1,000 out of the 5,000 such murders that occur worldwide every year are in India.

India’s Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that those found guilty of the killings should face the death penalty.

Bangkok – Two eight-year-old girls have been charged under a draconian Thai junta law for tearing down voter lists for an upcoming referendum, police said Saturday, as authorities go to increasingly bizarre lengths to muzzle dissent.

The junta is determined to see a charter it drafted pass in the August 7 poll and has outlawed critical discussion of the document with a 10-year prison sentence.

Campaigning of any kind is also banned and authorities have already arrested or warned scores of people for handing out critical leaflets or wearing ‘Vote No’ t-shirts.

The eight-year-olds fell foul of the law after confessing this week to tearing down voter lists outside a school in northern Thailand because they liked the paper’s pink colour.

The pair have been charged with “obstructing the referendum process, destroying official documents and destroying common public property,” said Damrong Phetpong, the police commander of northern Kamphaeng Phet province.

They will not face jail time as Thai law exempts anyone under the age of 10 from criminal punishment, he said, adding that police were still duty-bound to file the charges.

Thai activists plan to defy junta ban with more marches

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“Police have a duty to compile witnesses and evidence and then refer the case to a public prosecutor” who will decide whether to pursue the case, he told AFP.

The junta has become increasingly jittery ahead of the poll, with police initially speculating that anti-junta activists were behind the torn voter lists.

But an investigation led officers to the girls, who were questioned at a police station.

The junta opened monitoring centres across the country this month and is on high alert to block any movement against the charter from supporters of the ousted government, who are expected to vote it down.

This week authorities shut down a critical satellite TV station run by that political bloc, which has seen two of its governments removed by coups in 10 years.

The junta bills its new charter draft as a way out of the political crisis that has bludgeoned the kingdom for the past decade.

But critics and rights groups have lambasted the document and say it will solidify the military’s sway in government and diminish the power of elected politicians.