A 20-year-old woman in Pakistan is in police custody, accused of killing her husband and 14 members of his family by poisoning them.
Asiya Bibi reportedly tried to give her husband, who she was forced to wed in an arranged marriage in September, poisoned milk. However, when he didn’t drink the glass she gave him, her mother-in-law unwittingly used the milk to make a batch of sweetened yoghurt drink lassi.
The lassi was served to 27 members of Bibi’s husband’s family, and at least 15 have died – including Bibi’s husband, 25-year-old Amjad Akram, and a seven-year-old girl. Twelve other people remain in a critical condition from the poisoning.
https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/925428649880416258
Police have also arrested Bibi’s alleged lover and his aunt, who they suspect are involved in the incident. Bibi has denied her involvement to local reporters, saying that the plan was her lover’s idea, and that she didn’t use the poison he had given her.
A local police officer told reporters that Asiya’s alleged actions stemmed from her unhappiness at being forced into marriage.
Asiya was forced to marry Amjad against her will. She was not happy and came back to her parents house after a few days into marriage but her family forcibly sent her back to her in-laws’ house. Asiya concocted the plot to avenge being married against her will and was provided with poisonous substance by her alleged lover, Shahid Lashari.
Pakistan has one of the world’s highest rates of forced marriages, and women who find themselves in arranged marriages have very few resources to help them leave their situations.
Bibi has been charged with murder, and her alleged lover and his aunt under anti-terror laws.
