Pakistan Girl Burnt Alive for Refusing Marriage, While Couple Hacked to Death for 'Shameful' Love Union

A young Pakistani girl has been burnt alive by a man she had refused to marry, police in the eastern Punjab province said.

The brutal murder was the second honour killing in the region over the weekend, after a young couple were hacked to death by her family for having married without their consent.

Sidra Shaukat, 20, was doused in gasoline and set alight in a field by a man after her family turned down his marriage proposal. Shaukat was rushed to a local hospital, where she died.

District police official Akhtar Saeed said 26-year-old Fayaz Aslam has been arrested in connection with the murder.

Elsewhere in Punjab, A 17-year-old girl and her husband were killed by members of her family, who said they were embarrassed by the fact she had married a man from a less important tribe.

Despite her parents' disapproval, Muafia Bibi accepted to tie the knot with the man she loved, Sajjad Ahmed, a 30-year-old with two failed marriages on his back, earlier this month.

Days after the wedding they were lured back to her home village under the promise that their marriage would receive a family blessing, as Bibi's parents had finally come to terms with the union.

Back home they found her parents, two uncles and her grandfather waiting to kill them, police officials said.

"When the couple reached there, they tied them with ropes," local police official Rana Zashid said. "He (the girl's father) cut their throats."

Police said they have arrested all the five alleged killers.

Marrying for love is a taboo among conservative Muslims in Pakistan and the country accounts for 1,000 of the about 5,000 honour killings committed around the world each year, according to the international digital resource centre Honour Based Violence Awareness (HBVA).

Victims are usually women whom relatives accuse of bringing shame upon the family, over alleged sexual indiscretions. In some cases couples are also killed.