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Pakistani mother who boasted about burning her daughter alive in an honour killing over her choice of husband is sentenced to death

• Parveen Bibi will be executed for burning her daughter Zeenat Rafiq to death

• The 18-year-old angered her mother by getting married to an unapproved man

• Murderous mother Bibi tied her daughter to a cot and set her on fire in Lahore

• She then ran out into the street bragging of how she had killed the teenager

ByGareth Davies For Mailonline

January 16, 2017

A Pakistani mother who boasted about burning her daughter alive in an honour killing over her teenager's choice of husband has been sentenced to death.

Parveen Bibi was convicted of murdering Zeenat Rafiq just a week after getting married to Hassan Khan in June.

The murdering mother tied the 18-year-old to a cot with the help of the victim's brother before dousing her in kerosene and setting her alight in the family home in Lahore, Eastern Pakistan.

Bibi then went outside and began shouting on the street to neighbours that she had killed the teen for bringing shame on her family, while beating her chest.

Prosecutor Abdur Rauf said judge Chaudhry Ilyas in eastern Lahore on Monday convicted Parveen Bibi of burning to death Zeenat Rafiq a week after her marriage to Hassan Khan last June.

Rauf said the court sentenced the victim's brother Anees Rafique to life in prison for helping his mother kill his 18-year-old sister.

Defense lawyer Shahid Iqbal said the son had no role in the killing and was wrongly convicted.

Naseem Bibi, the murderer's younger sister, in the aftermath of the killing said: 'After killing her daughter, Perveen went out on the street, took off her shawl and started beating herself on her chest, shouting: 'People! I have killed my daughter for misbehaving and giving our family a bad name.'

'My sister declared a long time ago she would not allow her daughter to marry a Pashtun.'

Zeenat's crime in her mother's eyes was getting married to her partner Hassan Khan, a motorcycle mechanic.

His ethnicity was the main cause of the family's disapproval.

Mr Khan's is an ethnic Pashtun, while Zeenat was a Punjabi.

Zeenat's husband Khan told local TV station Geo News last year that the pair had eloped.

He had reluctantly allowed his wife to return to her family home after her family promised they would hold a celebration and not harm her.

He said: 'After living with me for four days following our marriage, her family contacted us and promised they would throw us a proper wedding party after eight days. Then we would be able live together.

'Zeenat was unwilling to go back to her home and told me that she would be killed by her family, but later agreed when one of her uncles guaranteed her safety.

'The day we eloped she had been abused, there was blood on her nose and on her lips,' Hassan told CNN.

'She was in distress; she asked me to take her away and marry her.'

'After two days, she called me and said that her family had gone back on their word and asked me to come to get her, but I told her to wait for the promised eight days.

'Then, she was killed.'

Violence against women is rampant in Pakistan, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Citing media reports, it said there were more than 1,100 'honour killings' in 2015.

Pakistan's parliament passed legislation against 'honour killings' in October, three months after the murder of outspoken social media star Qandeel Baloch.

Her brother was arrested in relation to her strangling death in July.

Perceived damage to a family's 'honour' can involve eloping, fraternizing with men or other breaches of conservative values.

In most cases, the victim is a woman and the killer is a relative who escapes punishment by seeking forgiveness for the crime from family members.

Under the new law, relatives can forgive convicts in the case of a death sentence, but they would still have to face a mandatory life sentence.

Grieving husband of Pakistani bride, 18, burned alive by her MOTHER for marrying him reveals she begged him to elope with her to escape her family's brutal clutches

• Zeenat Rafiq, 18, was burned alive by her own mother in Lahore, Pakistan

• Parveen Rafiq tied her daughter to a cot and doused her in kerosene

• Zeenat had defied the family's wishes and had married her boyfriend

• Her husband says her family beat her and she had begged him to elope

By Imtiaz Hussain In Lahore, Pakistan, For Mailonline

June 10, 2016

The Pakistani teenager burned alive by her own mother as punishment for eloping with her boyfriend had begged him to marry her so she could be free from her abusive family.

Zeenat Rafiq 18, was tied to a bed by her mother and brother, doused in kerosene and set her alight in the family home in Lahore, eastern Pakistan.

Her husband Hassan Khan, 19, has revealed that she came to his house beaten and bloodied and asked him to elope with her so she could escape the brutal clutches of her mother and brother.

Mr Khan, a mechanic, told MailOnline: 'Zeenat’s family was very bad. She was often beaten by her mother just for nothing. 'Her mother also knew about our affair and once her brother beaten her so severe that she had three stitches over her head.

That was the day when we decided that we would married now even without the consent of the Zeenat’s family.

'I was really very hurt when she was beaten by her brother. I wished that i should go to her home and beat her brother like he beaten Zeenat but my friends stopped me to do so.

My friends wanted me to marry her with the consent of her family. But Zeenat always said that she would never allow to marry me. So we decided for court marriage.'

Recalling the day they married, Mr Khan said: 'The day we eloped she had been abused, there was blood on her nose and on her lips.

'She was in distress; she asked me to take her away and marry her.'

Mr Khan revealed on the fourth day of their marriage Zeenat's mother Parveen a cousin and another family member arrived at their home and told his parents they wanted to take Zeenat home so that a proper marriage could be arranged.

They claimed that so far many family members are unaware that Zeenat eloped from her home and they wanted their honour to be restored as people should not knew about this happening.

He went on: 'Zeenat was unwilling to go back to her home and told me that she would be killed by her family, but later agreed when one of her uncles guaranteed her safety.

He went on: 'They gave us assurance that in a couple of days, proper marriage would be arranged with relatives and friends and then they would hand over Zeenat to them in the presence of relatives and friends.

'After discussions between both the families, my parents agreed to their proposal and we have allowed her to go with her mother. Although, Zeenat was reluctant to go with them but even then we decided to send her.'

'After two days, she called me and said that her family had gone back on their word and asked me to come to get her, but I told her to wait for the promised eight days. Then, she was killed.'

Khan's ethnicity, he is an ethnic Pashtun, while Zeenat was a Punjabi, was the main cause of the family's disapproval, according to the Rafiq family.

After the murder, Zeenat's mother Parveen Rafiq then went outside and began shouting on the street to neighbours that she had killed the teen for bringing shame on her family, while beating her chest.

Zeenat's 'crime' was getting married to Mr Khan, who had been her boyfriend for years, before a court magistrate last month, Police official Sheikh Hammad said.

'Perveen killed her daughter Zeenat by burning her alive around 9:00 am on Wednesday,' Haidar Ashraf, a senior police official told AFP.

Mr Khan told local TV station Geo News that the pair had eloped, but he had reluctantly allowed her to return to her family home after they promised they would hold a celebration and not harm her.

He said: 'After living with me for four days following our marriage, her family contacted us and promised they would throw us a proper wedding party after eight days. Then we would be able live together.

Hassan's mother Shahida Khan said that Rafiq's family 'had promised that not even one hair on her head would come to harm.'

'We called up her uncle and he told us that they will bring her back to us themselves -- we trusted them,' she told CNN.

Hassan Khan, her husband of 11 days, today buried his wife, who was found to have smoke in her lungs suggesting she was still alive when she was set on fire.

'We went to her house, she was gone, she was finished and they had thrown her burnt body on the stairs,' he said.

Ashraf, the police official, said Perveen and other family members had confessed to the crime and that police had seized kerosene oil from the scene.

At the victim's two-bedroom family home in a low-income southern neighbourhood of the city, Perveen's family remained defiant.

Naseem Bibi, Perveen's younger sister, told AFP: 'After killing her daughter, Perveen went out on the street, took off her shawl and started beating herself on her chest, shouting: 'People! I have killed my daughter for misbehaving and giving our family a bad name.'

'My sister declared a long time ago she would not allow her daughter to marry a Pashtun,' she said.

The victim's sister Shazia also blamed Zeenat for defying her mother, but said she had urged her mother to cut ties with her instead of killing her.

Perveen's husband died several years ago and her relationship with her daughters had deteriorated, according to Shazia.

'Our mother became distressed because of her daughter's disobedience and because she felt there was no man in the house to rein her in.'

Nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called 'honor killings' in Pakistan for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.

Last week, a 19-year-old teacher was tortured and burned alive for refusing to marry the son of her boss - a man twice her age.

Maria Sadaqat,was attacked in the village of Upper Dewal, outside the capital Islamabad, on Monday night, and died two days later as a result of injuries.

Ms Sadaqat had recently been forced to leave her teaching job at the school, after the principal had begun harassing her when she turned down the proposal from his son, who was '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 — her former boss and 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.

'She was gone': Pakistani teen burned to death by family, police say

By Adeel Raja, Sohail Abbas, Holly Yan and Tim Hume - CNN

June 10, 2016

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) - The bereaved widower of a young Pakistani woman allegedly burned to death by her family says her relatives guaranteed her safety to persuade her to visit after she eloped against their wishes.

But after 18-year-old Zeenat Rafique arrived at her family's home in Lahore on Wednesday, her mother and brother tied her to a bed, poured gasoline and set her on fire, according to Punjab police representative Nabeela Ghazanfar.

An autopsy released Thursday said Rafique had traces of smoke in her respiratory tract, indicating she was alive when she was set ablaze, CNN affiliate Geo News reported.

Her mother, Parveen Rafique, has turned herself in to authorities and expressed no sorrow for her actions, police said. She's being held on suspicion of murder, while the brother, Ahmer Rafique, is on the run, police said.

Forbbiden love

After Rafique was laid to rest Thursday, her tearful husband, Hassan Khan, 19, told CNN that the young lovers had been married only 11 days ago.

They spent three days together as husband and wife before her family persuaded her to return home temporarily, he said.

"Her relatives came and we told them that we're married now. They said, 'That's fine,' and asked us to send her home," he said.

"Her cousin gave the guarantee that nothing would happen to her. We were not sending her otherwise."

She was supposed to return Thursday but was killed the day before, he said.

"We went to her house, she was gone, she was finished and they had thrown her burnt body on the stairs," he said.

Allegations of earlier violence

Khan said his late wife's family had been violent toward her before over her wish to marry.

"The day we eloped she had been abused, there was blood on her nose and on her lips," he said. "She was in distress; she asked me to take her away and marry her."

He told police she had feared for her life after they eloped. But Rafique returned to visit her family because she thought a reconciliation was possible, police representative Ghazanfar told CNN.

The couple had known each other for five years, Khan said.

"She was unhappy, our marriage was the only way out that we had -- her family didn't approve."

'How could they be so heartless?'

Khan's mother, Shahida Khan, said that Rafique's family "had promised that not even one hair on her head would come to harm."

"We called up her uncle and he told us that they will bring her back to us themselves -- we trusted them," she said.

She said her son has been suicidal since learning of the death of his wife, whom he first met as a girl in school.

"We woke up yesterday and found out that they had burned Zeenat," she told CNN. "My son started screaming and crying. ... He said that, 'Now that she's dead, I'm going to leave this world as well.' "

The killing has left her family distraught, the mother-in-law said.

"There should be justice. How could they be so heartless and kill this girl? She was our child now; she married our son."

Rafique had also been strangled, the autopsy said, according to Geo News.

"When we saw her body, she had strangulation marks on her neck," Shahida Khan said.

Ghazanfar said investigators would need to wait for a postmortem examination to determine what Rafique had been subjected to by her killers.

Rafique's family had refused to accept her body.

Family unapologetic, police say

Ghazanfar said police were seeking Rafique's brother "because an old woman cannot perform this act alone."

"There has to be help," she said.

Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif was notified of the killing, Ghazanfar said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif "expressed his deep concern and anguish over the killing," his office said in a statement.

He called the killing "against the values and traditions of Islam."

Shahida Khan told CNN that her family was receiving threats from Rafique's family.

About 1,100 women were killed by relatives in Pakistan last year, according to the country's independent Human Rights Commission.

The crimes originate from tribal practices and are often meted out as punishment for behavior viewed as bringing dishonor to a family or village.

Mother who burned her 16-year-old daughter alive for eloping in Pakistan ran into the street and shouted 'I have killed my girl for misbehaving' as she beat her chest, her sister reveals

• Zeenat Rafiq, 18, was burned alive by her own mother in Lahore, Pakistan

• Parveen Rafiq tied her daughter to a cot and doused her in kerosene

• Zeenat had defied the family's wishes and had married her boyfriend

By Sara Malm for MailOnline

June 9, 2016

A Pakistani mother who burned her teenage daughter alive as punishment for eloping to marry her boyfriend proudly shouted about her murder in the street afterwards.

Parveen Rafiq, tied her daughter Zeenat, 18, to a cot, doused her in kerosene and set her alight in the family home in Lahore, eastern Pakistan.

Mrs Rafiq then went outside and began shouting on the street to neighbours that she had killed the teen for bringing shame on her family, while beating her chest.

Zeenat's 'crime' was getting married to her partner Hasan Khan, a motorcycle mechanic, before a court magistrate last month, Police official Sheikh Hammad said.

'Perveen killed her daughter Zeenat Bby burning her alive around 9:00 am on Wednesday,' Haidar Ashraf, a senior police official told AFP.

Khan's ethnicity - he is an ethnic Pashtun, while Zeenat was a Punjabi - was the main cause of the family's disapproval, according to the Rafiq family.

Zeenat's husband Khan told local TV station Geo News that the pair had eloped, but he had reluctantly allowed her to return to her family home after they promised they would hold a celebration and not harm her.

He said: 'After living with me for four days following our marriage, her family contacted us and promised they would throw us a proper wedding party after eight days. Then we would be able live together.

'Zeenat was unwilling to go back to her home and told me that she would be killed by her family, but later agreed when one of her uncles guaranteed her safety.

'The day we eloped she had been abused, there was blood on her nose and on her lips,' Hassan told CNN. 'She was in distress; she asked me to take her away and marry her.'

'After two days, she called me and said that her family had gone back on their word and asked me to come to get her, but I told her to wait for the promised eight days. Then, she was killed.'

Hassan's mother Shahida Khan said that Rafiq's family 'had promised that not even one hair on her head would come to harm.'

'We called up her uncle and he told us that they will bring her back to us themselves -- we trusted them,' she told CNN.

Hassan Khan, her husband of 11 days, today buried his wife, who was found to have smoke in her lungs suggesting she was still alive when she was set on fire.

'We went to her house, she was gone, she was finished and they had thrown her burnt body on the stairs,' he said.

Ashraf, the police official, said Perveen and other family members had confessed to the crime and that police had seized kerosene oil from the scene.

At the victim's two-bedroom family home in a low-income southern neighbourhood of the city, Perveen's family remained defiant.

Naseem Bibi, Perveen's younger sister, told AFP: 'After killing her daughter, Perveen went out on the street, took off her shawl and started beating herself on her chest, shouting: 'People! I have killed my daughter for misbehaving and giving our family a bad name.'

'My sister declared a long time ago she would not allow her daughter to marry a Pashtun,' she said.

The victim's sister Shazia also blamed Zeenat for defying her mother, but said she had urged her mother to cut ties with her instead of killing her.

Perveen's husband died several years ago and her relationship with her daughters had deteriorated, according to Shazia.

'Our mother became distressed because of her daughter's disobedience and because she felt there was no man in the house to rein her in.'

Nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called 'honor killings' in Pakistan for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.

Last week, a 19-year-old teacher was tortured and burned alive for refusing to marry the son of her boss - a man twice her age.

Maria Sadaqat,was attacked in the village of Upper Dewal, outside the capital Islamabad, on Monday night, and died two days later as a result of injuries.

Ms Sadaqat had recently been forced to leave her teaching job at the school, after the principal had begun harassing her when she turned down the proposal from his son, who was '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 — her former boss and 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.

Hurried funeral for Lahore 'honour killing' victim

AFP

June 9, 2016

LAHORE: An 18-year-old girl murdered by her mother for marrying the man of her choice was discreetly buried before dawn Thursday by her in-laws, as activists and politicians condemned Pakistan's latest gruesome honour killing.

Zeenat Bibi was set on fire Wednesday in a low-income neighbourhood of Lahore. None of her relatives sought to claim her body, police said Thursday, leaving her new husband's family to bury her charred remains in the dark in a graveyard near the city.

“There was a peace and calm in the area during the funeral prayer and burial,” the officer in charge of the local police station Sheikh Hammad Akhtar told AFP.

Akhtar said the husband, 20-year-old Hasan Khan, had launched a complaint in the killing against his bride's mother, Perveen Bibi, who is in police custody.

The victim's family told AFP how Perveen ran into the street after the murder and began beating her chest, shouting: “People! I have killed my daughter for misbehaving and giving our family a bad name.”

An AFP reporter said Zeenat's family home was closed and locked Thursday.

Neighbour Muhammad Asghar said the family had left, adding: “Why have they gone when everybody is coming to share their grief?”

Hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan each year for so-called “honour”, but it is rare to hear of such atrocities being carried out by women.

Khan said on TV that the couple had eloped, but he had reluctantly allowed Zeenat to return to her family home after they promised they would hold a celebration and not harm her.

Police have also detained one of Perveen's sons-in-law, and are searching for another of her sons. Investigators said they were still awaiting the official results from a post-mortem report.

Rights activists condemned the killing Thursday as Senator Sherry Rehman called for the federal government to detail the steps it was taking to prevent such violence.

“Women continue to face violence in the most atrocious form despite the prevalence of legislation against such acts,” Rehman told the Senate Thursday.

That a family could turn against their own child “shows that there something flawed in law and society”, said Hina Gilani, a human rights activist in Lahore.

“Anybody, whether father, mother, can do it because they have the satisfaction that they can get away with it,” she said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to eradicate the “evil” of honour killings after a documentary highlighting the issue won an Oscar in February, but no fresh legislation has been tabled since then.

Last week 19-year-old Maria Sadaqat was tortured then burned alive for refusing a marriage proposal from a school principal's son in Murree.

In April a young woman was strangled and then her body set ablaze because she helped a friend elope in Abbottabad, another case that sparked revulsion.

Daughter burnt alive by mother

Dawn.com

June 9, 2016

LAHORE: A mother burnt alive her 18-year-old daughter on Wednesday for marrying a man of her own choice in an area near General Hospital on Ferozepur Road.

Parveen Rafiq, who confessed to having murdered her daughter for “bringing shame to the family”, was arrested at her home in a low-income neighbourhood on Mast Iqbal Road. She set Zeenat Rafiq on fire more than a week after the girl reportedly eloped with Hasan Khan to marry him before a court in Lahore.

Police suspect that Parveen was helped by her son and son-in-law, both on the run, in killing the girl.

Cantonment SP (operations) Abadat Nisar told Dawn that circumstantial evidence suggested that the mother had been helped by other family members in killing the girl. Police were conducting raids to arrest the suspects, he added.

Hasan had agreed to let his wife return after her family promised four days ago to organise a traditional wedding reception for the couple.

He told the media that Zeenat was not willing to go back to her parents’ home because she feared they would kill her. “But she agreed after her family gave assurances regarding her safety,” he was quoted by a TV channel as saying.

Witnesses told Dawn that they had alerted the emergency rescue service after they saw smoke coming out of Parveen’s home.

“Police and rescue firefighters reached the spot, put out the blaze and recovered the body of the girl,” a witness said.

Police said they had collected forensic evidence from the crime scene, recorded statements of eyewitnesses and removed the body to a morgue for autopsy.

“A case has been registered against three suspects, including the victim’s mother, brother Anees and brother-in-law Mushtaq, on the complaint of her husband, Hasan Khan, under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 336/8 of the Pakistan Penal Code,” a police official said.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed police authorities to take strict action against all those involved in the crime.

This is the second case of ‘honour killing’ in one week in Punjab. Last week, 19-year-old Maria Sadaqat was tortured and burned by a group of people in a village near Murree for refusing a marriage proposal from the son of the owner of a school where she taught.