A Pakistani woman was arrested Wednesday, June 8, 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, against their wish.
Police official Sheikh Hammad said the killing took place in the
eastern city of Lahore, the country’s cultural hub, and that the mother
was arrested the same day.
The suspect, Parveen Rafiq confessed to tying up her 18-year-old
daughter Zeenat Rafiq (pictured) to a cot after which, with the help of her son,
Ahmar Rafiq, she poured the oil on the girl and set her ablaze, Hammad
said.
Police Superintendent Ibadat Nisar said
officers were looking for her brother who is "on the run". Her mother
was found in the house with the body.
"Her
mother has confessed to the crime but we find it hard that a 50-year-old
woman committed this act all by herself with no help from the family
members," he said.
Nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called “honor killings”
in Pakistan for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and
marriage.
A schoolteacher, Maria Bibi, was assaulted and set on fire last week
for refusing to marry a man twice her age. Before she died, she managed
to give a statement to the police, testifying that five attackers had
broken into her home, dragged her out to an open area, beat her and set
her ablaze. The prime suspect in the case — the father of the man she refused to marry — and the other four are all in custody.
A month earlier, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council
who allegedly strangled a girl and set her on fire for helping a friend
elope. The charred body of 17-year-old Ambreen Riasat was found in a
burned van.
The victim Zeenat Rafiq, had gotten married last
month before a court magistrate to a motorcycle mechanic, Hasan Khan and they went to live with his family.
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.
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