Muzaffargarh: Husband sets wife on fire for leaving house without permission

Muhammad Siddique became enraged that his wife visited her sister without first asking him; police arrest suspects

PHOTO JJenkinsPhotography

MULTAN:
A man and his father have been arrested in the latest so-called "honour killing" case after they set the son's wife alight for leaving the house without asking his permission, police said on Sunday.

Muhammad Siddique became enraged on learning that his wife, Shabana Bibi, 25, had visited her sister without first asking him if she could go out, her brother Muhammad Azam said.

Siddique and his father then beat Bibi before dousing her with petrol and setting her on fire in Muzaffargarh district on Friday, Azam said.

Related: Karachi student set on fire succumbs to injuries

Bibi had been married to Siddique for three years, during which time she had suffered repeated domestic abuse for the couple's inability to have children, Azam said.


Suffering burns to 80% of her body, Bibi died of her injuries in hospital on Saturday.

"We have arrested the husband and father-in-law of the deceased woman and charged them for murder and terrorism," district police chief Rai Zameer-ul-Haq told AFP. The charge of "terrorism" is regularly applied in such cases so as to expedite the legal process.

Related: 13-year-old set on fire

Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives each year through domestic violence or on the grounds of defending family "honour".

The Aurat Foundation, a campaign group that works to improve the lives of women, says more than 3,000 women have been killed in such attacks since 2008.
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