UPPER DEWAL, Pakistan: Pakistani police say they have arrested two suspects and are continuing their search for five men who tortured a 19-year-old school teacher and burned her to death for refusing to marry a man twice her age.
The teenager’s mother, Ashia Bibi, told The Associated Press Thursday that, hours before her death, her daughter Maria had given police a statement alleging that five men had stormed her house earlier that week, dragged her to an open area and kicked her as though she were a “football.” Bibi demanded justice for her daughter.
Local police official Waheed Ahmed says that authorities were aware that Maria Bibi had been attacked before. The teenager died on Wednesday at a hospital in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Such attacks are not uncommon in Pakistan, where nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called “honor killings” for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.
The teenager’s mother, Ashia Bibi, told The Associated Press Thursday that, hours before her death, her daughter Maria had given police a statement alleging that five men had stormed her house earlier that week, dragged her to an open area and kicked her as though she were a “football.” Bibi demanded justice for her daughter.
Local police official Waheed Ahmed says that authorities were aware that Maria Bibi had been attacked before. The teenager died on Wednesday at a hospital in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Such attacks are not uncommon in Pakistan, where nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called “honor killings” for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.
