Woman set on fire by her husband and father-in-law in latest Pakistani 'honour killing'

A Pakistani Christian woman praying at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Lahore.(Photo: Reuters)

A woman was murdered in Pakistan on Friday after reportedly going to her sister's house without permission from her husband.

Muhammad Siddique and his father were arrested on Sunday after allegedly beating Siddique's wife, Shabana Bibi, and setting her on fire.

Bibi's brother, Muhammad Azam, reported that Bibi had been beaten throughout her three-year marriage because she did not bear any children. On Friday, she allegedly went to see her sister without informing Siddique. She was then beaten and set on fire in Central Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district.

District police chief Rai Zameer-ul-Haq confirmed that the father and son were taken into custody following her death.

"We have arrested the husband and father-in-law of the deceased woman and charged them for murder and terrorism," he told reporters.

According to AFP, a terrorism charge is sometimes added in serious cases to expedite the proceedings.

Some cultures believe that when a person commits an act that is considered shameful to their family, they should be killed to preserve the family's honour. Pakistani law allows the family to nominate who will carry out the act, and then forgive the perpetrators.

Rarely are the killers prosecuted or convicted, and they may even walk free after a conviction.

Last June, 18-year-old Saba Maqsood miraculously survived being shot twice and thrown in a canal in Hafizabad, Pakistan for marrying the man that she loved instead of the man her family chose for her.

Maqsood told police that her father, uncle, and aunt tortured and shot her, then left her for dead.

The attempted murder came less than two weeks after the stoning to death of another Pakistani woman, Farzana Parveen, in a May 27 "honour killing."

Parveen, 25, died from severe head trauma after being barraged with bricks thrown by her father, brothers, fiancé, and others in front of the Lahore High Court.

She was engaged to marry her cousin, but decided to marry a man whom she loved, according to Lahore police.