A pregnant woman, Farzana Parveen, has been allegedly stoned
to death by her family in front of a Pakistani high court on Tuesday.According
to a Pakistani police investigator Rana Mujahid, the 25-year-old woman
was stoned to death because she married the man she loved.
It was
gathered that nearly 20 members of the woman’s family, including her
father and brothers, attacked the deceased and her husband with batons
and bricks in broad daylight before a crowd of onlookers in front of the
high court of Lahore.
Reports say hundreds of women are murdered
every year in Muslim-majority Pakistan in so-called “honor killings”
carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged
adultery or other illicit sexual behavior.
Mujahid informed
newsmen that the woman’s father has been arrested for murder and that
police were working to apprehend all those who participated in the
“heinous crime.”
*Policemen collect evidence near the body of Farzana Parveen
Another
police officer, Naseem Butt, said the deceased had married Mohammad
Iqbal against her family’s wishes after being engaged to him for years.
Iqbal, 45, said he started seeing Parveen after the death of his first wife, with whom he had five children.
The
dead woman's lawyer, Mustafa Kharal, who confirmed that she was three
months pregnant before her death, said the deceased father, Mohammad
Azeem, had filed an abduction case against Iqbal, which the couple was
contesting.
Investigation revealed that Parveen’s relatives had
waited outside the court and as the couple walked up to the main gate,
the family members fired shots in the air and tried to snatch her from
Iqbal, her lawyer said.
*A family member of the dead woman wails over her body
When
she resisted, her father, brothers and other relatives started beating
her, eventually pelting her with bricks from a nearby construction site.
A
Police source informed that Parveen’s father surrendered after the
incident and called the murder an “honor killing,” Butt said.
It was reported that the woman’s body had been handed over to her husband for burial.
Arranged marriages are the norm among conservative Pakistanis, who view marriage for love as a transgression.
The
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a private group, said in a report
last month that some 869 women were murdered in honor killings in 2013.
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