Pregnant girl burnt alive by husband

LAHORE: A 25-year-old pregnant girl was burnt alive by her husband in Shalimar on Sunday.

The victim has been identified as Naseem Bibi, who got married to Arshad a year ago and was seven months pregnant.

According to the police, the accused dealt in the packaging of washroom liquid soaps, for which he had hired girls to help with the packaging. The accused allegedly teased the girls, due to which most of them never worked more than three or four days. This caused tensions to develop between the couple. On the day of the incident, the accused exchanged harsh words with his wife, doused her with petrol and burnt her alive.

Talking to Daily Times, Naseem Bibi’s parents wished that she had left the house, and returned to their house instead of arguing with Arshad. The victim’s mother, while weeping, said that she had planned to bring her daughter back to their house before the child was born.

Argument: Brother of the deceased, Ramzan, claimed that a month ago Arshad had thrown Naseem out of his house over a minor domestic dispute. He said that following that incident, the victim’s father-in-law had come to their house, asked them to ignore his son’s mistake and returned home with her. Ramzan claimed that Arshad’s parents had tried their best, and to some extent, forced Naseem to continue with the marriage, adding that if the family had any idea about the mental condition of the accused they would not have allowed her to return.

Mother-in-law: Shalimar Division Deputy Superintendent police Rana Azeem said that they had arrested the mother-in-law of the deceased, Sharifan Bibi, who had denied any involvement in Naseem’s death. He said that she had told police during interrogation that the girl had committed suicide by setting herself on fire. However, Azeem said that according to preliminary investigations, the evidence pointed towards murder. He also said that investigations were still under way and steps would be taken to arrest the other people accused of involvement in the case.

The body of the deceased has been sent to the city morgue for an autopsy.
Source: Daily Times
Date:9/15/2008