‘British girl who feared arranged marriage was murdered’
LONDON, Jan 11: A British teenager who feared her parents would force her into an arranged marriage and claimed to be the victim of domestic abuse was murdered, a coroner said on Friday.
Coroner Ian Smith, speaking at the conclusion of an inquest, ruled that 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed, whose body was found beside a river almost four years ago, had been unlawfully killed.
“She was murdered,” Smith said.
“I’m convinced of that because of the way in which the body was disposed, it had been hidden and she had been taken many miles away from home.”
Police began a murder investigation after Ms Ahmed’s body was found, but no one has been charged. Cheshire Police said on Friday that the investigation remained active.
In Britain, a coroner’s inquest is held to determine the cause of death when someone dies unexpectedly, violently or of unknown causes. The inquest was opened in 2004, but adjourned to allow the police to investigate.
Ms Ahmed vanished in September 2003 shortly after returning home from a family trip to Pakistan, where she was introduced to a suitor and subsequently hospitalised after drinking bleach. In February 2004, the student’s decomposed body was found in undergrowth near a river in Sedgwick, about 420km northwest of London.
A pathologist, Dr Alison Armour, told the inquest in Kendal, northwest England, that Ms Ahmed had likely died from smothering or strangulation.—AP
