A woman in Pakistan is alleged to have fatally poisoned 15 of her in-laws in a botched effort to kill her husband and escape her arranged marriage.
The incident occurred in Daulatpur village in the Muzaffargarh area of the Punjab region on Friday, the Express Tribune reports.
Asiya Bibi was forced into an arranged marriage to Amjad in September, Muzaffargarh police said. She tried to escape from her husband but failed.
She then attempted to poison her husband, but he didn’t drink the milk which she had spiked. Instead, the milk was used to make a batch of lassi – a yoghurt-like milkshake – Dunya News reports. Twenty-eight of the husband’s extended family drank the lassi.
The family were rushed to hospital on Friday, where 11 died. Another two members of the family died the next day, Pakistan Observer reports. Fifteen people in total have now died, the latest victim a seven-year-old girl, Geo TV reports.
Asiya confessed to the poisoning, the Tribune said. Police official Owais Ahmad said she had been charged with murder. A man, believed to be the woman’s boyfriend, Shahid, and his aunt, Zarina Mai, were also arrested, Geo TV said.
“Police have arrested Asiya Bibi, a man and his aunt for being accomplices and charged them with murder,” Ahmad said.
Aisya denied the charges at a press conference on Monday saying, “Shahid told me to poison the beverage but I didn’t do it.”
