Police say Zeenat Rafiq, 17, was drenched in kerosene and set alight after marrying against her family’s wishes

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A young Pakistani woman who was burned to death by her family on Wednesday for running away and marrying without their permission had been tricked into returning home by her mother’s promise to organise a proper wedding ceremony, her husband has said.

Seventeen-year-old Zeenat Rafiq was doused with petrol and set on fire by her mother, Perveen, in a neighbourhood of Lahore. The mother reportedly made no attempt to hide her crime, shouting to neighbours that she had killed her daughter for supposedly dishonouring her family.

Zeenat ran away with and married Hassan Khan last week, angering her Punjabi family who were furious that she had married an ethnic Pashtun without permission.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hassan Khan shows a picture of his wife, Zeenat Rafiq, at his home in Lahore on Wednesday. Photograph: KM Chaudary/AP

In a television interview with Geo News, Khan said his wife had been duped into returning home. “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,” he said.

“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.

“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.”

Pakistan PM promises tougher stance on 'honour' killings Read more

Lahore police arrested Zeenat’s mother and said they were looking for her brother, who had recently flown in from Dubai.



At their two-bedroom home in a low-income southern neighbourhood of Lahore, the family remained defiant.

Perveen’s younger sister Naseem 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 case has attracted the interest of Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab. In February Sharif’s brother, the prime minister Nawaz Sharif, pledged to close a loophole under Islamic law that allows many perpetrators of so-called “honour” killings to go free.

Under current laws family members are allowed to forgive the killer, forcing prosecutors to drop even the most watertight case.

It often leads to killers walking free in situations where entire families agree that a daughter has brought shame on them.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Family members comfort Hassan Khan, the husband of Zeenat Rafiq. Photograph: KM Chaudary/AP

The government has not yet honoured Sharif’s pledge, which was made in the run-up to Pakistan’s second-ever Oscar win for a short documentary on “honour” killings called A Girl in the River.

Experts say such murders often go unreported. But the death of Zeenat was the third to hit the headlines in the past three months.

Last week Maria Sadaqat, a 19-year-old woman, was reportedly lynched and burned to death by people in her village near the hill station resort of Murree, near Islamabad. She was killed because she had refused to accept the proposal of the already married son of the owner of the school where she taught.

In April a 16-year-old girl from another area near the capital was murdered for allegedly helping another couple to elope. Police said Ambreen Riasat was drugged, suffocated and then put in the back of a van which was set alight.

It is thought that several hundred women are murdered each year in Pakistan by family members who believe their honour and standing in the community has been damaged by their daughters.