Sunday Times 2
Four arrested in Pakistani woman bludgeoning case
View(s):CHAK 367, Pakistan, May 31 (AFP) – Pakistani police investigating the murder of a woman bludgeoned to death outside a court have arrested four men, a senior officer said, as her husband said he wanted her killers to “die in pain”.
Farzana Parveen was killed on Tuesday outside the High Court in the eastern city of Lahore by more than two dozen attackers armed with bricks, including numerous relatives, for marrying against her family’s wishes.
Pakistani activists from the PPP Social Media hold placards as they chant slogans during a protest against the killing of pregnant woman Farzana Parveen was beaten to death with bricks by members of her own family for marrying a man of her own choice in Lahore. AFP
Her husband Mohammad Iqbal — who Thursday admitted he had strangled his first wife out of love for Parveen — told AFP he wanted to see her attackers “killed with bricks”.
Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives in Pakistan each year supposedly in the name of defending family “honour”.
But the brazen, brutal nature of Parveen’s killing, in broad daylight in the centre of Pakistan’s second largest city, has triggered outrage around the world.
Police were apparently at the scene, but did not stop the mob killing Parveen, who was three months pregnant.
Officers made arrests late on Thursday after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif demanded immediate action on the case.
“Special investigation teams set up by police on the directive of the chief minister arrested four more people including an uncle and two cousins of the slain woman and a driver on Thursday night,” senior police official Zulfiqar Hameed told AFP on Friday.
The new arrests bring the number held over the killing to five, after Parveen’s father was detained at the scene of the attack.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed that the case should be heard in an anti-terrorism court. This should mean it moves more quickly than in an ordinary court, where cases can drag on for years.
The country’s Supreme Court has also demanded a police report on the incident.