LAHORE - A 16-year-old girl murdered by her mother for marrying the man of her choice was discreetly buried before dawn yesterday by her in-laws, as activists and politicians condemned Pakistan's latest gruesome honour killing.
None of her relatives sought to claim her body, police said Thursday, leaving her new husband's family to bury her charred remains in the dark in a graveyard near the city.
"There was a peace and calm in the area during the funeral prayer and burial," the officer in charge of the local police station Sheikh Hammad Akhtar said.
Akhtar said the husband, 20-year-old Hasan Khan, had launched a complaint in the killing against his bride's mother, Perveen Bibi, who is in police custody.
The victim's family told AFP how Perveen ran into the street after the murder and began beating her chest, shouting: "People! I have killed my daughter for misbehaving and giving our family a bad name."
An AFP reporter said Zeenat's family home was closed and locked Thursday.
Police have also detained one of Perveen's sons-in-law, and are searching for another of her sons. Investigators said they were still awaiting the official results from a post-mortem report.
Last week 19-year-old Maria Sadaqat was tortured then burned alive for refusing a marriage proposal from a school principal's son in Pakistan's conservative northeast.
In April a young woman was strangled and then her body set ablaze because she helped a friend elope in the northwest, another case that sparked revulsion.

AFP