A 16-year-old girl's friend begged her for a harmless favor. She agreed. A little while later, 15 people attacked her, drugged her, tied her up, threw her into a locked car, and then set the car on fire. Here are photos and video of the men and what they did to her.
Ambreen Riasat was just 16 years old when she was viciously murdered in a heinous killing that drew international attention when at least 13 suspects from a tribal council were apprehended in Pakistan for their part in the savage killing, the Independent reports. Ambreen was burned alive in the village of Donga Gali, near the north-western city of Abbottabad and about 30 miles northeast of Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, according to Reuters. But, that's not all.
What's worse, the savage murder came at the hands of the girl's own family and community in what's described as an "honor killing," CNN reports. Although "honor killings" are sadly nothing new, the sheer pre-meditated brutality of this one thrust the incident into international headlines, drawing worldwide attention to the practice of killing those who bring "shame" onto their family.
A group of 15 members of a local tribal council, or "jirga," allegedly ordered the killing of Ambreen Riasat in retaliation for the girl's role in helping a couple elope. They wanted her punishment to be so severe, no girl would ever consider running away from the village again, and if she did, no one would dare help her.
Although the subject of honor killings isn't new to Pakistan, the young girl's murder was so heinous that it "shocked even a country used to 25 years of debating such 'honor killings,'" explained Sherry Rehman, an opposition Senator in Pakistan's parliament who previously served as Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States as well as Federal Minister and became the first parliamentarian in the country to introduce a bill against honor killings.
The victim was taken from her home to an abandoned building where she was drugged and also strangled, according to some reports, until she fell unconscious. Then, she was placed in the backseat of a parked van. Her hands were reportedly tied to the seats to prevent escape before the vehicle was doused with gasoline and she was set ablaze in the same van that was reportedly used to help her school friend flee the village to marry of her own free will.
Prior to her murder, Ambreen Riasat confessed to assisting the local couple in eloping. "The accused confessed during the investigation that a few months back Saima, a schoolgirl from the same village and tribe, eloped with her boyfriend and Ambreen facilitated their frequent meetings and later their elopement," district police officer Khurram Rasheed said. The couple appears to have escaped, but Ambreen wasn't so lucky.
