A 16-year-old in Pakistan was reportedly murdered for helping a couple that was in love.
Pakistani police announced Thursday that the elders of a rural village in Makol had burned the teen to death after she helped a couple elope, NBC News reports. The punishment was apparently aimed at discouraging other couples from getting married without their parents' permission.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Saeed Khan Wazir told NBC News that 15 members of a village jirga (a local tribal council), along with the teen's mother, were arrested Wednesday in connection with the girl's death. The group is facing trial in an anti-terrorism court, according to NBC News.
Wazir referred to the girl as Ambreen, noting that she also went by Haleema, but he declined to give NBC News her last name. In his statement to the outlet, Wazir said that the jirga "decided to punish the girl in a novel way, so no one in future can dare to marry without consent of their parents and give a bad name to the village."
Abdullah Khan, managing director at the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, wrote a public Facebook post about the girl's death, noting that he was from the same village. "Killing was enough if someone wanted to shut her up," Khan wrote. He added that Pakistan should "stand together against these rascals who could not let a girl marry according to her wish."