Girl burnt over lover marriage in Lahore was first strangled: Postmortem report

LAHORE: Zeenat, the girl who was burnt alive over a love marriage was first strangled and then set on fire, her postmortem report revealed on Thursday.

When she was set on fire the girl was still breathing, as traces of smoke were found in her respiratory tract, the report added.

Her entire body except her feet had scalded. No traces of poison were found in her stomach, the report said.

Zeenat was laid to rest amid tears by her husband Hasan on Thursday. The couple had been married only for a few days. Her own family refused to accept her body.

On Wednesday, Zeenat was set on fire allegedly by her own mother for marrying of her own choice. Parveen, her mother, is in police custody.

Zeenat's husband Hasan in a statement to the police had said that Zeenat feared for her life after the couple eloped. "I only allowed her to visit her parents after her paternal uncle guaranteed her safety," he said.

Love marriages are considered to bring dishonour to families in extremely conservative parts of the country.

This is the third case where victims- all girls-- have been burnt to death.

A 19-year-old girl who was set ablaze for refusing a marriage proposal succumbed to her wounds on June 1 at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science. Maria, a school teacher in Murree was brought to PIMS with 85 percent burn injuries. Her family claimed that five people doused her in petrol and set her on fire after she refused to become the second wife of a man.

In May, the gutted body of a girl was found from a vehicle in Abbottabad. Police investigation into the case revealed that the 9th-grader was kidnapped from her house, sedated, murdered and then set on fire following a decision of a local Jirga.