Husband sets wife on fire in 'honour killing'
Pakistani human rights activists hold placards during a protest in
Islamabad on May 29, 2014 against the killing of pregnant woman by
members of her own family for marrying a man of her own choice in
Lahore. A Pakistani man and his father have been arrested in the
country's latest so-called "honour killing" after they set the son's
wife alight for leaving the house without asking his permission, police
said Sunday. PHOTO | FILE
By AFP
Posted Monday, April 20 2015 at 17:20
Posted Monday, April 20 2015 at 17:20
In Summary
Bibi had been married to Siddique for three years,
during which time she had suffered repeated domestic abuse for the
couple's inability to have children, Azam said
MULTAN
MULTAN
A Pakistani man and his father have been arrested
in the country's latest so-called "honour killing" after they set the
son's wife alight for leaving the house without asking his permission,
police said Sunday.
Muhammad Siddique became enraged on learning that
his wife, Shabana Bibi, 25, had visited her sister without first asking
him if she could go out, her brother Muhammad Azam said.
Siddique and his father then beat Bibi before
dousing her with petrol and setting her on fire in Central Pakistan's
Muzaffargarh district on Friday, Azam said.
FAMILY HONOUR
Bibi had been married to Siddique for three years,
during which time she had suffered repeated domestic abuse for the
couple's inability to have children, Azam said.
Suffering burns to 80 percent of her body, Bibi died of her injuries in hospital on Saturday.
"We have arrested the husband and father-in-law of
the deceased woman and charged them for murder and terrorism," district
police chief Rai Zameer-ul-Haq told AFP. The charge of "terrorism" is
regularly applied in such cases so as to expedite the legal process.
Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives
in Pakistan each year through domestic violence or on the grounds of
defending family "honour".
The Aurat Foundation, a campaign group that works
to improve the lives of women in Pakistan's conservative and patriarchal
society, says more than 3,000 women have been killed in such attacks
since 2008.