Thursday, June 9, 2016

Pakistani Woman Burns Daughter Alive for Eloping

A woman in Pakistan burned her 17-year-old daughter alive on Wednesday to punish her for marrying against the family's wishes, the latest in a series of so-called "honor killings" that claim the lives of nearly 1,000 women every year in the conservative Muslim country.
Police say Zeenat Rafiq's mother, Parveen, tied her to a cot and drenched her with kerosene before lighting her on fire. Neighbors in the congested, working-class neighborhood in the eastern city of Lahore came running when they heard the screams, but family members kept them from entering the house, said Nighat Bibi, who lives nearby.
The police eventually arrived and found the charred body near a staircase. They arrested the mother soon thereafter.
Family members comfort Hassan Khan, center, the husband of Zeenat Rafiq, who was burned alive, allegedly by her mother, at his home in Lahore, Pakistan Wednesday, June 8, 2016. A Pakistani woman was arrested Wednesday after dousing her daughter with kerosene and burning her alive, allegedly because the girl had defied her family to marry a man she was in love with, police said. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
 Family members comfort Hassan Khan, center, the husband of Zeenat Rafiq, who was burned alive
Three days ago, he said, the girl's mother and an uncle visited her to try to persuade her to return home and have the marriage ceremony repeated in a traditional family function, instead of being labelled her whole life as someone who had "eloped."
Khan, her husband, told the local Geo News TV station that his bride had feared the worst.
"Don't let me go, they will kill me," Khan recounted his wife telling him.-AP

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