*A Pakistani woman has been charged with the murder of a husband she was forced to marry. But she tells the authorities she had warned her parents that she would go to any extreme to get out of the marriage.
She wasn’t kidding.
Aasia Bibi told her parents that she already had a boyfriend, but they forced the 21-year-old to marry Mohammad Amjad, a man she disliked.
Amjad was also her cousin.
Though Bibi did stick to her word. The result of her actions went much further. The woman put rat poison in milk that she hoped to give to her husband. But for some reason or another, Amjad did not drink the milk. Instead, unknowingly, the man’s mother used the tainted milk the following day to prepare a traditional yogurt drink.
…which she served to 27 family members, including Amjad.
Amjad and 17 others became sich and were rushed to a district hospital where they later died. Among the dead were eight children aged 7 to 12, and two of Amjad’s brothers. Also dead were his three sisters-in-law and some distant relatives.
On October 31, following her arrest, Bibi went to court to face her charges and told the judge, “I repeatedly asked my parents not to marry me against my will as my religion, Islam, also allows me to choose the man of my choice for marriage but my parents rejected all of my pleas and they married me to a relative.”
Police believe that Bibi was influenced by her boyfriend, Shahid Lashari, to poison the milk. Consequently, both were charged with murder and are scheduled to return to court Nov. 14.
Pakistani police said Wednesday they also arrested Bibi’s aunt, 49-year-old Zarina Begum, for her involvement in the alleged plot.
“Her husband was in critical condition at a hospital and she looked as if nothing had happened and she was cool and calm at her home and it raised suspicions,” local police chief Zulfiqar Ali said about Bibi and how the incident drew immediate attention and suspicion.
Bibi’s boyfriend, Lashari, did confess to supplying the rat poison after he was arrested. When Bibi saw him in handcuffs, she too, confessed.
Lashari also told authorities that Bibi’s aunt knew about the plan to kill Amjad.
