LAHORE: The teenage girl, who was burnt alive by none other than her mother and other members of the family in the name of honour, was laid to rest before dawn at a graveyard in Chungi Amar Sidhu on Thursday.

Rights activists and many others condemned the gruesome incident and sought action against the family.

Zeenat Rafiq, 18, who resided at Main Chungi Bazaar on Mast Iqbal Road, was burnt alive on Wednesday by her mother, brother and brother-in-law for marrying a man of her own choice. Police registered a murder case against the three persons on the complaint of Zeenat’s husband Hassan Khan and arrested her mother who confessed to killing her daughter for bringing bad name to the family.

Police want her brother’s name on ECL

According to initial postmortem report, the teenage girl was strangled with a rope and then burnt after sprinkling kerosene on her body. The girl suffered 80pc burns and samples were sent to forensic lab to investigate the exact cause of death.

Factory Area SHO Inspector Hammad Akhtar said the dead body of the girl was handed over to her husband after completing legal formalities. He said the deceased was laid to rest at a graveyard in Chungi Amar Sidhu.

“None of the girl’s relatives attended the funeral which was arranged by her husband,” the SHO added. He said the victim’s four married sisters live in the same locality but no one had approached to demand her dead body to arrange funeral.

SP Investigation Tariq Elahi told Dawn that raids were being conducted to arrest the her brother Anees and the brother-in-law. He said they had written to the Interior Ministry to include the name of the suspect (brother) in the Exit Control List (ECL) so that he could not leave the country.

He said circumstantial evidence showed that more than two persons were involved in the murder.

A source told Dawn that police arrested girl’s brother-in-law Zafar and shifted him to an undisclosed location for interrogation. He said Zafar in his statement claimed that he had mediated between Zeenat and her family to bring her back home to arrange reception. He said the suspects would be produced before the court on Friday (today) to get physical remand.

AFP adds: Rights activists and politicians condemned the killing and demanded action against the suspects.

“Women continue to face violence in the most atrocious form despite the prevalence of legislation against such acts,” Senator Sherry Rehman told the Senate on Thursday.

“That a family could turn against their own child shows that there is something flawed in law and society,” said Hina Gilani, a human rights activist in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2016