The husband of a beauty therapist that mysteriously died in Pakistan has claimed she was a victim of an honour killing after she married him against her family’s wish.
Samia Shahid, 28, died last week while visiting relatives in northern Punjab and was buried in a village graveyard. But her husband Syed Mukhtar Kazam has now claimed her family murdered her after disagreeing with their marriage.
He said he was told she died of a heart attack while she was with them in the Pandori village in northern Punjab, after travelling there on July 14 over news a family member was seriously ill.
Her father has however slammed Mr Kazam’s accusations as “lies and allegations.”
Mr Kazam told the Guardian he married his wife in Leeds in September 2014 after she left her first husband, who was a cousin from Pakistan. He said his wife moved to live with him in Dubai last year but had made trips to the UK to talk to her parents about the relationship.
He told the Guardian: “She was healthy. And she had no disease.
“I believe she was killed because her parents were not happy with our marriage.”
Mrs Shahid’s father said the allegations were “lies” and said she had visited Pakistan “on her own and was not under any pressure from her family”.
Bradford West MP Naz Shah has vowed to fight for the truth in the case after she was contacted by a concerned constituent.
She said: “I’m not going to rest until I’m satisfied I know the cause of her death.”
She said the police are waiting for tests following an initial post mortem examination but she said that she will continue to call for an exhumation of Mrs Shahid’s body if these do not establish a conclusive cause of death.
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