16-year-old dies in ‘honor’ killing

Authorities say one man has been arrested and three more are being sought for the death of a 16-year-old girl in an “honor killing” allegedly carried out by neighbors unhappy she was meeting with a boy, according to a report in the Scotsman.

The report said the attack happened in a village in north India, when four neighbors barged into the home, beat the girl, poured kerosene on her and burned her.

Police allege the residents were keeping vigil on the teen’s home because they noticed a boy was visiting her frequently.

“The four men came to the girl’s house and demanded to know why the young man frequently visited her,” police chief Akhil Kumar told the newspaper. “The girl’s younger sister, who felt the visitors were getting violent, ran out of the house.

“The accused beat up the girl and then set her on fire with kerosene oil,” he said.

An officer, Vijay Singh, at the Ghojpur police headquarters in Ghaziabad, confirmed, “The girl has succumbed to her injuries. We have been looking for the four men accused in this case. One of them has been caught and charged with murder.”

The report said the girl, identified only as Imrana, survived long enough to give a statement to officers about her attackers.

According to the Times of India, the victim shouted for help and other neighbors heard the commotion for about 20 minutes before she died in a case police officers described as “moral vigilantism.”

The Times carried a conflicting report, stating that two had been arrested and reporting the suspects were saying the girl’s father had asked them to straighten out his daughter.

The victim’s 14-year-old sister, Afsana, told the Times, “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.”

Attention is being drawn to such attacks by an activist group called Responsible for Equality and Liberty, which recently held a rally in Washington on the issue.

“Every day, women are under attack by Islamic supremacism that supports and approves of oppression, mutilation, and murder of women. According to leaders and followers of Islamic supremacism, they have the right to commit violence against women. Islamic supremacism views oppression of women as a legitimate ‘right,’ violence against women as a legitimate ‘right,’ and murdering women as a legitimate ‘right,'” the organization said.

The organization cited the U.S. Senate response – a resolution – last year when a 13-year-old girl, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, was stoned in front of an African crowd of 1,000 as “punishment” for being the victim of a gang rape.

According to a BBC report, while she begged for mercy, the attackers said they were doing the will of Allah.

But the Senate failed to even acknowledge the “Islamic supremacist ideology” behind the attack in Somalia, a nation which now is ruled by Islamic Shariah law from border to border, the group charged.

That same “ideology” now has arrived in America, too, the group warned.

“Being ‘sorry’ is not enough. Politicians’ ‘condemnations’ are not enough,” the group said. “Ignoring the Islamic supremacist ideology behind the slaughter and oppression of women in America and around the world is not enough. … If we don’t speak out, if we don’t demand more of our national and international leaders, more women will be murdered by Islamic supremacists.”

The organization has launched a petition drive that calls upon both U.S. and U.N. officials “to recognize the global threat of oppression and violence to women from Islamic supremacism.”

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