Friday, February fourteenth, the   UN says at least 22 people have been killed in a village in the Northwest region of Cameroon. Over half of those killed were children. No one has claimed responsibility for Friday’s incident but the opposition parties blame the killing on the government.

Pakistani mother burns daughter to death


A Pakistani mother has been arrested on suspicion of burning her 16-year-old daughter alive for marrying without family consent in the latest so-called "honour killing" to shock the country.

Perveen Bibi, tied her daughter, Zeenat, to a bed, doused her with fuel and then set fire to her in Lahore, police said. 

Family members stopped neighbours from entering the house as the girl screamed for help, said Nighat Bibi, who lives nearby.

As her daughter burned, Perveen Bibi ran into the street shouting that she had killed the teen for bringing shame on her family.

The police eventually arrived and found the charred body near a staircase.

Zeenat married a man named Hasan Khan on May 29, police said. 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 woman's family.

Mr Khan, told reporters the two had been "in love since our school days" but the family had rejected several marriage proposals, forcing them to elope last month.

"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.

"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."

Sheikh Hammad, a local police official, said Perveen Bibi had confessed to killing her daughter with the help of her son Ahmar. He quoted the woman as saying "I don't have any regrets." 
Family members comfort Hassan Khan, centre, the husband Credit: AP
Another police officer, Ibadat Nisar, said the body also showed signs of beating and strangulation.

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.

Hundreds of women are killed every year in Pakistan - often by their own family members - for violating the country's conservative norms regarding love and marriage. Sex outside of marriage is seen by conservative Pakistanis as a stain on the honour of the woman's entire family, one that can only be removed by killing her.

Last week a schoolteacher, Maria Bibi, was set on fire for refusing to marry a man twice her age. The prime suspect in the case - the father of the man she refused to marry - and the other four are in custody.

A month earlier, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council who allegedly strangled a girl and set her on fire for helping a friend elope. The charred body of 17-year-old Ambreen Riasat was found in a burned van.


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