Basti Lashari (Pakistan), Nov 8 (AP) Pakistani policesaid today they arrested a woman for allegedly plotting withher newly-married niece to poison the young woman's husbandwith tainted milk that would eventually kill him and 17 otherrelatives in a remote village.
Investigators believe the boyfriend of 21-year-oldnewlywed Aasia Bibi incited her to kill her husband, MohammadAmjad, by poisoning his milk with rat poison because she wasnot happy in her arranged marriage. Amjad was her cousin.
Local police chief Zulfiqar Ali said Amjad did not drinkthe milk Bibi prepared the night of Oct. 24 but it was laterfound by his mother, 52-year-old Janat Bibi, who unwittinglyused the tainted milk to make a traditional yogurt drink thefollowing day.
The yogurt concoction was served to 27 members of theextended family, including Amjad, who along with 17 otherssubsequently died at a district hospital. Eight children aged7 to 12 were among the dead.
Ali said the deaths quickly drew the attention of police,who quietly began an investigation and quickly exposed a plotinvolving Aasia Bibi, her boyfriend Shahid Lashari and heraunt, 49-year-old Zarina Begum.
Ali said Bibi and her boyfriend were arrested and jailedpending trial after they confessed to their involvement in thepoisoningAmong the dead were Amjad's two brothers, his threesisters-in-law and some distant relatives.
"The family of Amjad did not contact police after thistragic incident but we took initiative and launched a probeinto the matter when bodies started coming to the village fromthe hospital," Ali said.
He said Bibi was among those who did not drink thetraditional Lassi, which is made with water and yogurt.
"Her husband was in a critical condition at a hospitaland she looked as if nothing had happened and she was cool andcalm at her home and it raised suspicions," he said.
Ali said police first arrested Lashari and he quicklyconfessed to his role in supplying the rat poison to hisgirlfriend. He said Shahid also told officers that Bibi'saunt, Zareena Begum, used to arrange for the couple to meet ather home and she was aware of the plot to kill Amjad.
Ali said before detaining Bibi, police collected her cellphone data enabling investigators to surmise that she was inconstant contact with Shahid after poisoning her husband'smilk.
Ali said Bibi confessed to her role in the killings uponseeing Shahid in hand-cuffs at a police station.
Another senior police officer, Sohail Habib Tajak, saidBibi was unhappy over her forced marriage and that she hadwarned her parents that she was capable of going to any lengthto get rid of her husband.
Sitting at her mud-brick home in this remote islandvillage in the Indus river about 450 km south of Multan incentral Pakistan, Bibi's mother Zakia Begum sobbed last night,saying she repents for forcing her daughter to marry a man shedid not like.
"I feel guilty and I think we should have not forced ourdaughter to marry Amjad as she did not like him," she told TheAssociated Press.
Begum urged other parents to give their daughters theright to marry the person of their choice.
Zohra Yousaf, a top human rights activist based inKarachi, said Bibi is among countless women who are forced bytheir parents to marry against their wishes but that it israre for a wife to kill her husband.
She said Bibi's actions reveal that she suffers fromdepression and anxiety.
Many parents in Pakistan arrange marriages for theirdaughters against their will and nearly 1,000 Pakistani womenare killed by close relatives each year in so-called "honourkillings" for marrying against the consent of their family orattempting to flee the unions. (AP)KIS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.