I killed my first wife because of this love’: Husband of pregnant Pakistani woman stoned to death by her own family makes shock confession.
The husband of the pregnant woman who was beaten to death in broad daylight has admitted he murdered his first wife to be with her.
Farzana Parveen, 25, was attacked with bricks by 20 family members because she ‘illegally’ married the man she loved.
The honour killing, on the steps of Lahore court, sparked global outrage as police reportedly looked on doing nothing.
Today, the victim’s husband confessed he killed his first wife so they could marry – and revealed that Farzana’s older sister was also murdered by her family in an honour killing.
‘I was in love with Farzana and killed my first wife because of this love,’ Mohammed Iqbal, 45, told AFP.
Mr Iqbal said he was spared prison because his son, who reported the murder, later dropped the charges.
He then hung up his phone and has not responded to further calls.
Earlier in the conversation, he said that Farzana’s older sister, Rehana, was poisoned by her family after her father had an argument with her parents-in-law.
Farzana’s stepson, Muhammad Aurangzeb, supported the claim.
Their father ordered Rehana to leave her husband, The Times reports, but she refused.
Women’s rights groups insist the murder was not reported to the police.
The shocking revelations come after Mr Iqbal berated the police for refusing to save his late wife.
He said that police did nothing during the 15 minutes the violence lasted outside Lahore High Court.
‘I begged them to help us but they said, this is not our duty,’ he said.
‘I took off my shirt (to be humble) and begged them to save her.’
Farzana Parveen, 25, who was three months pregnant, was killed by nearly 20 members of the woman’s family, including her father and brothers in Lahore on Tuesday
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has demanded to know why police apparently stood by, his spokesman said today.
In parts of Pakistan, a largely Muslim nation of 180 million people, women are expected to agree to arranged marriages and refusal can mean an ‘honour killing’.
Many Pakistani families think it dishonourable for a woman to fall in love and choose her own husband.
Sharif had taken notice of the ‘brutal killing’ in the presence of police, his press office said in a statement, adding that a ‘totally unacceptable’ crime had to be dealt with promptly by law.
‘I am directing the chief minister to take immediate action and a report must be submitted by this evening to my office,’ it said, quoting Sharif.
Last night her body was buried in the presence of some 100 mourners from her husband’s family at around 2 a.m. in a village graveyard in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province.
He said his family had chosen to bury her at night because of the gruesome state of her remains.
Police initially said Farzana had been stoned, but said today that relatives had swung bricks, not thrown them.
All the suspects, except the father, who has been detained, have disappeared.
A police officer on Tuesday quoted the father as saying it had been an honour killing.
The 25-year-old had offended her family by marrying Iqbal instead of a cousin selected for her.
Honour killings are common in Pakistan, but the brutality of this case caused outrage around the world.
Police said her father, two brothers and a former fiance were among the attackers.
Muhammad Aurangzeb, Farzana’s 20-year-old stepson, described how one relative had tried to shoot her, then grabbed her head scarf, causing her to fall over.
While a member of Iqbal’s party wrestled the gun away, a female cousin grabbed a brick and hit Farzana with it, he said.
‘She was screaming and crying ‘don’t kill me, we will give you money’,’ said Iqbal. He said he tried to save her but the mob of more than 20 beat him back.
At one point, six people were beating her with bricks as she screamed, he said, and he and his stepson begged police to help.
Finally she stopped screaming.
The attack happened near the gate of the heavily guarded court, the two men said, on one of the busiest roads in Lahore.
The couple had been due to testify there that morning that their marriage was genuine in response to a false charge of kidnapping brought by Farzana’s family.
It was not the first time her family had tried to kill the woman, said her lawyer, Rai Ghulan Mustafa.
On May 12, seven of her relatives had tried to force their way into his office, where she was sitting,
he said, but his colleagues had fought them off.
Later they attacked her near a police station.
Officers intervened and held the attackers for an hour before releasing them without charge, he said.
‘She was afraid of being killed,’ Mustafa said.
The case is the latest honour killing in Pakistan to outrage the world.
‘I do not even wish to use the phrase honour killing,’ said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in a statement in Geneva.
