Honour killing case: Pakistani-Italian woman was strangled to death

Islamabad, May 9 (IANS) A Pakistani-Italian woman who was killed in an alleged case of honour killing was strangled to death and did not die of natural causes, according to an autopsy report.

The police arrested the victim Sana Cheema's brother, father and uncle after the submission of the report by the the Punjab Forensics and Science Laboratory. It stated that Cheema's cervical bone was fractured, the Express Tribune reported on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old was murdered in her hometown of Mangowal for "honour". The police said the girl's father, identified as Ghulam Mustafa, wanted to marry her off to one of his relatives in Pakistan but Cheema wanted to get married in Italy. 

The father then took on board his son, Adnan Mustafa, and brother, Mazhar Iqbal, and hatched a plan to kill her.

The deceased's family labelled her death as a "natural one" until reports stating otherwise surfaced online and in Italian media, prompting further investigations. 

The autopsy was conducted after her body was exhumed to take samples for forensic analysis.

A private hospital had denied during the investigation that it had admitted and treated the Pakistani-Italian woman. The hospital had stated that she had visited on April 11 as an out-patient and left after being prescribed medicine for nausea.

Cheema's parents had also submitted forged documents to the Italian Embassy.

In 2016, British national Samia Shahid was murdered for "honour" in Pakistan. The 28-year-old girl from Bradford had been visiting her family in Jhelum when she was killed because her family disapproved of her second marriage.