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Hassan Khan shows a picture of his wife Zeenat Bibi, who was burned alive AP

Mother sentenced to death for burning daughter alive because she didn't like her husband

Zeenat Bibi, 16, was doused with kerosene and set alight in June last year in Pakistan’s cultural capital Lahore.

A MOTHER WHO murdered her own daughter and set her alight for marrying the man of her choice has been sentenced to death, officials said today, in a case that had revolted many in Pakistan.

Zeenat Bibi, aged 16, was doused with kerosene and set alight in June last year in Pakistan’s teeming cultural capital Lahore, a little over a week after she wed 20-year-old motorcycle mechanic Hasan Khan against her family’s wishes.

A judge in an anti-terror court in Lahore sentenced her mother Perveen Bibi to death on murder and terrorism charges, prosecutor Mian Mohammad Tufail told AFP.

She was charged under Pakistan’s terrorism laws rather than newly-reformed criminal legislation against honour killings because of the use of kerosene in the murder, Tufail said.

Bibi also received a 14-year jail term and was fined one million rupees (about €8,700) under separate counts related to the killing. Her son Mohammad Anees was jailed for life and fined 1.5 million rupees for his role in the killing, Tufail said.

Bibi’s son-in-law, the husband of another daughter, was acquitted, he said.

Action against honour killings 

Zeenat’s vicious murder sent shockwaves across Pakistan and triggered fresh calls for action against so-called “honour killings”.

Hundreds of women are killed by their relatives each year after allegedly bringing shame on their families in the deeply conservative Muslim country.

Under previous legislation the culprits — usually men — could get away with the killings after being pardoned by members of their own family.

But in July last year the high-profile murder of social media star Qandeel Baloch, whose brother confessed to the killing, reignited calls for reform.

In October, parliament passed a law aimed at removing the ability to forgive “honour” killers. But critics contend some loopholes still exist.

Khurram Khan, chief prosecutor, confirmed the sentences.

© AFP 2017

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    Mute Tim Henchin
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    Nov 16th 2011, 9:01 AM

    ………. what is the betting that not one of them will have a legitimate mandate. We live in a post-democratic age, it is disturbing to see how many accepted this.

    We have the man who fudged Greece’s books, so they could get in to the Euro, while he was the head of their banking system made leader. It is like having Sean Fitzpatrick rammed in as leader of this state by Europe.

    It will either go down in history as the start of a dark but temporary blot on European democratic history or else as a great day for Europe, written by our new technocratic masters in the future, the corporatization of the continent. There used to be a name for the merging of corporate power and State control in to one entity. A predecessor of this man invented it.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnTOiso08HM

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    Mute Uncle Mort
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    Nov 16th 2011, 9:40 AM

    Good link Tim,thanks for sharing it.
    The mention of the ‘intense talks’ by Monti begs the question as the what bribes were offered, by bribes I mean offers of position and power.

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