Husband of Bangladeshi teenager burned alive for marrying him reveals the girl had been badly beaten by her mother the day they eloped and begged to marry him so they could run away
- Zeenat Rafiq, 18, was burned alive by her own mother in Lahore, Pakistan
- Parveen Rafiq tied her daughter to a cot and doused her in kerosene
- Zeenat had defied the family's wishes and had married her boyfriend
- Her husband says her family beat her and she had begged him to elope
The Pakistani teenager burned alive by her own mother as punishment for eloping with her boyfriend had begged him to marry her so she could be free from her abusive family.
Zeenat Rafiq 18, was tied to a bed by her mother and brother, doused in kerosene and set her alight in the family home in Lahore, eastern Pakistan.
Her husband Hassan Khan, 19, has revealed that she had come to his house beaten and bloodied and asked him to elope with her so she could escape the brutal clutches of her mother and brother.
Burned alive: Zeenat Rafiq died after her mother and brother tied her up and set her on fire in the family home in Lahore, eastern Pakistan
'The day we eloped she had been abused, there was blood on her nose and on her lips,' Mr Khan, a mechanic, told CNN.
'She was in distress; she asked me to take her away and marry her.'
'Zeenat was unwilling to go back to her home and told me that she would be killed by her family, but later agreed when one of her uncles guaranteed her safety.
'After two days, she called me and said that her family had gone back on their word and asked me to come to get her, but I told her to wait for the promised eight days. Then, she was killed.'
Khan's ethnicity - he is an ethnic Pashtun, while Zeenat was a Punjabi - was the main cause of the family's disapproval, according to the Rafiq family.
Family members comfort Hassan Khan, center, the husband of Zeenat Rafiq, at his home in Lahore, Pakistan
Mother murder: Parveen Rafiq, tied her daughter Zeenat, 16, to a cot, doused her in kerosene and set her alight as punishment for eloping to marry her boyfriend.
Bragging rights?: After the killing of her daughter, Mrs Rafiq began shouting on the street to neighbours that she had killed the teen for bringing shame on her family, while beating her chest
After the murder, Zeenat's mother Parveen Rafiq then went outside and began shouting on the street to neighbours that she had killed the teen for bringing shame on her family, while beating her chest.
Zeenat's 'crime' was getting married to Mr Khan, who had been her boyfriend for years, before a court magistrate last month, Police official Sheikh Hammad said.
'Perveen killed her daughter Zeenat by burning her alive around 9:00 am on Wednesday,' Haidar Ashraf, a senior police official told AFP.
Mr Khan told local TV station Geo News that the pair had eloped, but he had reluctantly allowed her to return to her family home after they promised they would hold a celebration and not harm her.
He said: 'After living with me for four days following our marriage, her family contacted us and promised they would throw us a proper wedding party after eight days. Then we would be able live together.
Honour killing: Punjabi Zeenat's 'crime' was getting married to her Pashtun boyfirned Hasan Khan, a motorcycle mechanic, and her mother said the teenager had brought shame on the family
Perveen Rafique in the custody of Pakistani police after confessing to the murder of her daughter
Hassan's mother Shahida Khan said that Rafiq's family 'had promised that not even one hair on her head would come to harm.'
'We called up her uncle and he told us that they will bring her back to us themselves -- we trusted them,' she told CNN.
Hassan Khan, her husband of 11 days, today buried his wife, who was found to have smoke in her lungs suggesting she was still alive when she was set on fire.
'We went to her house, she was gone, she was finished and they had thrown her burnt body on the stairs,' he said.
Ashraf, the police official, said Perveen and other family members had confessed to the crime and that police had seized kerosene oil from the scene.
At the victim's two-bedroom family home in a low-income southern neighbourhood of the city, Perveen's family remained defiant.
Naseem Bibi, Perveen's younger sister, told AFP: 'After killing her daughter, Perveen went out on the street, took off her shawl and started beating herself on her chest, shouting: 'People! I have killed my daughter for misbehaving and giving our family a bad name.'
'My sister declared a long time ago she would not allow her daughter to marry a Pashtun,' she said.
Defiance: Hassan Khan, shows his marriage certificate, proving that he married Zeenat in a civil ceremony, something which greatly angered her family
Fears: Mr Khan says his wife Zeenat had begged him not to let her family take her back to their house, as she feared they would kill her as punishment for eloping
The victim's sister Shazia also blamed Zeenat for defying her mother, but said she had urged her mother to cut ties with her instead of killing her.
Perveen's husband died several years ago and her relationship with her daughters had deteriorated, according to Shazia.
'Our mother became distressed because of her daughter's disobedience and because she felt there was no man in the house to rein her in.'
Nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called 'honor killings' in Pakistan for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.
Last week, a 19-year-old teacher was tortured and burned alive for refusing to marry the son of her boss - a man twice her age.
Maria Sadaqat,was attacked in the village of Upper Dewal, outside the capital Islamabad, on Monday night, and died two days later as a result of injuries.
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