Honor Killing of Girl, 16

(Ghaziabad, India) Four men have been accused of setting a 16-year-old girl, Imrana Hakim, on fire for allegedly befriending a young man named Irfan.

Finding her smoldering, neighbors took Imrana to the hospital where she died. Although her death clearly appears to be an honor killing, police are calling the homicide an act of "moral vigilantism."

Apparently, Imrana's father, Abdul Hakim, set circumstances in motion by asking the four men to straighten his daughter out and then leaving for the day. According to Afsana, Imrana's sister,

"Arif banged hard on the rear door of our house. I thought he would break the door, so I unlatched it. While he was accusing my sister of befriending Irfan, three others, including Zalis and Asim, barged in. They threw me out and locked the door from inside. I heard my sister’s screams for 20 minutes."

Arif and Asim were taken into custody on Monday.


[Update 3/26/09]

All four suspects in the death of Imrana have now been arrested.

According to the police, Zalis and Munshaad were arrested from a hideout near the village. "They have confirmed the claims of other accused Asim and Arif that Imrana's father had asked them to straighten his daughter as one Irfan used to visit her frequently. The four accused had also scuffled with Irfan and some others on the day of incident. We will book them under the Gangster Act, the National Security Act, murder and other charges," said Akhil Kumar, Ghaziabad police chief.

As reported earlier, four men on Monday afternoon forced their way into Imrana's house and beat her up. They then set her on fire. Imrana had made a dying statement before a magistrate and named the four accused.

Horribly sad.