Islamabad, Pakistan (AHN) – A father and four uncles are facing murder charges in Pakistan for allegedly torturing to death a 17-year-old girl because she shamed the family by eloping.

The case of the honor killing of Saima Bibi was initially reported by her family as suicide but police in the Bahawalpur district in east Pakistan are conducting an autopsy of her body, which had burns indicating she was electrocuted.

Elders and Bibi’s family decided in a meeting of a village council or panchayat that the girl must be punished with death for dishonoring the family when she left the village with her neighbor six weeks ago, according to police.

The father had claimed her daughter committed suicide by drinking poison.

Police are also hunting Bibi’s mother and two other relatives who had roles in the crime.

A human rights group in Pakistan claimed that 650 women were killed in 2009 for violating tribal customs such as getting married without permission of male relatives or having sex outside marriage.

Tribal customs justify the punishment of death to those who committed such acts considered as shameful to families.

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