Arranged marriages are a standard practice in Pakistan and there's no shortage of stories about the extreme steps some Pakistani women will take to escape them and marry the men they choose.

But few go as far as Aasia Bibi is alleged to have gone.

Aasia Bibi and her boyfriend Shahid Lashari are presented to journalists. Bibi is alleged to have poisoned her future husband's milk, inadvertently killing 17 other people in a remote village. Credit:AP

According to Pakistani authorities, the 21-year-old woman tried to slip poison into her new husband's milk and inadvertently killed 17 of his family members in the process.

Bibi, who is charged with murder, appeared in court on Tuesday in the north-eastern city of Muzaffargarh, where she told reporters that her parents had forced her in September to marry a relative, Associated Press and ITV reported.