Parents booked for honour killing of British woman of Pak origin

Gujrat (Pakistan), July 27 (ANI): The police have said the parents of a British woman of Pakistani origin along with her former husband and two others have been booked for killing her in a village near Mangla in Pakistan's Jhelum district. Syed Mukhtar Kazim, the husband of 28-year-old Samia Shahid, alleged that his wife was killed by her family in the name of so-called honour as she married him against the will of her parents. Kazim lodged an FIR on July 23 against Samia's father Chaudhary Shahid, mother Imtiaz Bibi, sister Madiha Shahid, cousin Mobeen and the deceased woman's former husband Chaudhary Shakil under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 34 (common intention) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code, reports the Dawn. Samia's death was reported by her father to the Mangla Police on July 20. The suspects, who have so far denied the charges, insist that Samia died of cardiac arrest. Meanwhile, a police official said the body samples of the deceased have been sent to the forensic laboratory in Lahore and the result was awaited. Samia, a beauty therapist from Bradford, was previously married to her cousin Shakil but the couple reportedly parted ways after divorce in May 2014. She then married Kazim of Taxila in September 2014 and the couple started living in Dubai. Kazim has in the FIR claimed that Samia had been killed by her relatives, who had refused to accept their relationship because he did not belong to their community. He added that his mother-in-law phoned Samia on July 11 asking her to come to Pakistan to see her ailing father. Samia arrived in the country on July 14. Kazim said that his wife's phone was switched off on July 20 and he contacted Mobeen, her cousin, who told him that she had suffered a heart attack. He then reached Pakistan on July 21. Reports suggest that Naz Shah, a member of British Parliament from Bradford, had asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to intervene in the matter. (ANI)