ISLAMABAD, May 6 (UPI) -- Authorities in Pakistan arrested 14 people for the so-called honor killing of a teenage girl who was choked, injected with poison, tied to a van and burned to death.
More than a dozen leaders of a small village in northwestern Pakistan were charged Thursday with the killing of Ambreen Riasat, 16, on April 29. A 15-member tribal council, known as a Jirga, allegedly ordered the killing in Abbottabad in Pakistan's northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province because she helped one of her friends elope.
"The order came after Ambreen's neighbor, Saima, had eloped with her boyfriend on the 22nd of April," police officer Khurram Rasheed said.
Ambreen's mother was among the 14 arrested because she allegedly knew about the orders to kill her daughter. The bride's father requested that village elders investigate after he found out, police said.
The couple that eloped are in a safe place, police said.
In February, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, won an Oscar for best documentary short and helped bring renewed attention to the practice of honor killing. Sabha, 18, survived despite being shot, tied in a gurney bag and thrown in a river by family members for an unsanctioned marriage.
In Ambreen's case, police initially thought she was raped by a scorned boyfriend or part of family dispute. But Saeed Wazir, the regional police chief in Abbottabad, said Thursday the village council had sanctioned the act to send a message to other minors for not disclosing her role in the elopement.
"They said she must be burnt alive to make a lesson for other girls," he said.
Several men dragged the girl of her house and tied her into the van, Wazir said.
"Despite the requests and pleas from her parents, villagers forcibly brought her out and set her afire while roping her to the seat of the vehicle," he said.
Around 1,100 women were illegally killed by relatives in Pakistan last year, according to the country's independent Human Rights Commission. The crimes are punishment for behavior that is seen to bring dishonor to a family or village.
