According to a Pakistani police investigator Rana Mujahid, the 25-year-old woman was stoned to death because she married the man she loved.
It was gathered that nearly 20 members of the woman’s family, including her father and brothers, attacked the deceased and her husband with batons and bricks in broad daylight before a crowd of onlookers in front of the high court of Lahore.
Reports say hundreds of women are murdered every year in Muslim-majority Pakistan in so-called “honor killings” carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged adultery or other illicit sexual behavior.
Mujahid informed newsmen that the woman’s father has been arrested for murder and that police were working to apprehend all those who participated in the “heinous crime.”
*Policemen collect evidence near the body of Farzana Parveen
Another police officer, Naseem Butt, said the deceased had married Mohammad Iqbal against her family’s wishes after being engaged to him for years.
Iqbal, 45, said he started seeing Parveen after the death of his first wife, with whom he had five children.
The dead woman's lawyer, Mustafa Kharal, who confirmed that she was three months pregnant before her death, said the deceased father, Mohammad Azeem, had filed an abduction case against Iqbal, which the couple was contesting.
Investigation revealed that Parveen’s relatives had waited outside the court and as the couple walked up to the main gate, the family members fired shots in the air and tried to snatch her from Iqbal, her lawyer said.
*A family member of the dead woman wails over her body
When she resisted, her father, brothers and other relatives started beating her, eventually pelting her with bricks from a nearby construction site.
A Police source informed that Parveen’s father surrendered after the incident and called the murder an “honor killing,” Butt said.
It was reported that the woman’s body had been handed over to her husband for burial.
Arranged marriages are the norm among conservative Pakistanis, who view marriage for love as a transgression.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a private group, said in a report last month that some 869 women were murdered in honor killings in 2013.
Sources: Naij.com news, new york post, Associated Press
