PESHAWAR, Pakistan — More than a dozen leaders of a small village in northwestern Pakistan were arrested Thursday and charged with burning a teenage girl to death because she helped one of her friends elope, security officials said.
The crime, which is renewing attention on Pakistan’s horrific record of protecting women and children from abuse, took place on the outskirts of Abbottabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Khurram Rasheed, police chief for the northern district of Abbottabad, said Thursday that the charred body of 17-year-old Ambreen Riasat was found in a burned van in the tourist resort of Donga Gali on April 29, the Associated Press reported.
.A graphic photo of the teenager’s charred remains quickly circulated online. It appeared as if the girl’s arms had been bound before she was set on fire.
Initially, police suspected the girl may have raped by a scorn lover or as part of a family dispute. But Saeed Wazir, the regional police chief in Abbottabad, announced Thursday that the murder was a “preplanned act” involving 14 village leaders. Wazir said the entire village council had sanctioned the act to send a message to other minors.
“They said she must be burnt alive to make a lesson for other girls,” Wazir said.
In act of defiance against Pakistan’s strict Islamic and paternal customs, Wazir said the victim had helped one of her friends secretly marry her boyfriend. The bride “didn’t obey her father’s will and did a love marriage at court with a guy,” Wazir explained.
After the new bride’s father found out, he requested that village elders investigate the matter. In many parts of Pakistan, females are expected to get their father’s consent before marriage.
The village elders called a local meeting, which is referred to as a Jirga. Under Pashtun culture in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, such gatherings are often held to try to reach consensus on how best to resolve local disputes. At times, the meetings also stray into a form of street justice.
According to Wazir, the village elders tasked with investigating the marriage quickly discovered that the victim had helped her friend evade her father’s will. The elders then decided the victim needed to be punished for not disclosing her role in the marriage.
Several men then dragged the teenager out of her house and tied her into the van, Wazir said.
“Despite the requests and pleas from her parents, villagers forcibly brought her out and set her afire while roping her to the seat of the vehicle,” Wazir said.
Both the leader of the Jirga and the father of the newlywed girl were arrested, Wazir said. A dozen other men who participated in the Jirga were also charged, he added.
It was not immediately clear whether the new bride or her husband were also punished.
The case, however, represents a troublesome expansion of mob-like tactics that women can face in Pakistan when they disobey their parents or extended family members.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 8,694 females have died in so-called honor killings here between 2014 and 2015. Those crimes involve revenge killings for dishonoring a family, village or local custom.
About one-fourth of those cases involved the death of a minor. Though most common in remote areas, honor killings still occur in Pakistan even in larger, more progressive cities. The problem was highlighted recently in the Oscar-winning film, “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.”
The documentary profiles a 18-year-old woman who was beaten and shot by father and uncle in Punjab province after she married a man against their wishes. The woman, Saba, survived. Her father and uncle were arrested but later freed, according to HBO Documentary Films.
After he saw the film, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to end honor killings.
Earlier this year, Sharif’s political party, Pakistan Muslim League-N, pushed through a women’s rights bill in Punjab province. The legislation, strongly opposed by the religious community, establishes a 24-hour domestic abuse hotline and network of shelters offering housing, first aid and counseling for women.
Still, a horrific wave of abuse continues.
On Sunday, Punjab police arrested a man and charged him with killing wife, who was seven months pregnant, the Express Tribune newspaper reported. Using a club, the man apparently beat the woman to death after she refused to allow him to take a second wife.
Also in Punjab over the weekend, a man tossed acid onto a 37-year-old woman, resulting in burns over 30 percent of her body. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that the woman’s nephew is a chief suspect. The man apparently wanted to marry one of the woman’s daughter s- his cousin — but was refused.
“He was annoyed with his maternal aunt for turning down his marriage proposal,” Azhar Akram, a police officer in Multan, told Dawn.
Thank you @AbdullahKhan333 for reporting what seems to be a horrible ‘honour’ killing in your village in Galyat
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) April 29, 2016
(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Aimar Iqbal, Tim Craig
