Pakistani Woman Burns Daughter Alive

Pakistani officials say a woman has been arrested after burning her daughter alive because the young woman had defied her family to marry a man of her choice.

Police said the killing took place in the eastern city of Lahore on June 8, and that the mother was arrested the same day.

The suspect, Parveen Rafiq, confessed to pouring petrol on her 18-year-old daughter Zeenat Rafiq and setting her ablaze, with the help of her son, police official Sheikh Hammad Akhtar said.

Police are looking for the son.

Violence against women is not uncommon in Pakistan, where nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called “honor killings.”

A 19-year-old schoolteacher, Maria Bibi, was tortured, doused with gasoline and set on fire last month for refusing to marry a man twice her age.