Pakistani woman kills 15 family members to 'avenge' forced marriage

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Pakistani woman kills 15 family members to 'avenge' forced marriage
Pakistani woman kills 15 family members to 'avenge' forced marriage

New Delhi : A Pakistani woman has been arrested for allegedly killing 13 members of her family by poison as a revolt to forced marriage. 

A resident of Punjab's Muzaffargarh, Asiya Bibi, reportedly mixed poison into her husband Amjad's milk last week but he initially failed to drink it and it was instead blended into a batch of yoghurt-based lassi and served to the man's family.

Thirteen members of the family died and 14 others fell severally sick before Asiya was arrested. Two more family members have passed away since. The total death toll stands at 15. 

The woman, who was forced by her family into an arranged marriage in September, has been arrested and charged with murder along with her alleged lover, senior police official Owais Ahmad told reporters in central Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district on Monday.

Police in Muzaffargarh, a city in south Punjab, says that Asiya concocted the plot to “avenge” being married against her wishes two months ago.

After an earlier attempt to flee to her parent’s home was foiled, she was provided with poison by her alleged lover, said a Muzaffargarh district police officer, Nazim Ali.

But the plot went awry when Amjad, Asiya’s husband, did not drink the glass of milk she handed to him, Ali said. Instead, her mother-in-law poured the poisoned substance into a vat kept by the family and drew from it the next day to make lassi and butter.

Initially, it was claimed that a lizard had fallen into the milk, poisoning it. But according to police, Asiya confessed her role while in custody.

Pakistan accounted for the highest number of forced marriages reported to the UK’s Forced Marriage Unit in 2016. Some 612 of the 1400 cases involved women from the south Asian country brought over to Britain.