Pakistani court orders UK woman’s suspected killers jailed

ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani court has ordered the father and ex-husband of a murdered British woman held for 14 days pending trial, apparently the latest case of so-called “honour killings” in Pakistan.

Chief investigator Abu Bakar Khuda Bux says the two suspects appeared on Monday before a court in the eastern Pakistani city of Jhelum, after the police investigation was completed.

Police have said that 28-year-old Samia Shahid, a British woman of Pakistani origin, was strangled to death in July. Her family claimed that she died of natural causes.

Shahid’s second husband Mukhtar Kazim had raised the alarm, which resulted in the arrests. Kazim claims his wife was lured back by her family to visit Pakistan under the pretext of her father’s illness.

Pakistan reports nearly 1,000 so-called “honour killings” every year.