Father of honour killing victim Samia Shahid dies

Samia Shahid's father has been found dead just days before a documentary on her death was set to air. The cause of death has not been revealed.

Shahid, a beautician from Bradford, England, was raped and strangled in an alleged honour killing in 2016 while visiting family in Pakistan. She had gone to Pakistan after receiving a phone call claiming her father, Chaudhry Muhammad Shahid, was critically ill. Her father was arrested as a suspected accessory, but was later released due to lack of evidence.

Her former husband, Muhammad Shakeel, was charged with raping Shahid and then killing her. Shakeel is still in jail.

Shahid drew her family's ire after she divorced Shakeel, her cousin, and then married a second time without their consent. Her family reportedly disapproved of the marriage.

The documentary, Murdered for Love? Samia Shahid, was set to be broadcast on BBC Two this week, but has been postponed following her father’s death. It is not immediately known when the documentary will be aired next.

In the documentary Shahid's second husband Syed Mukhtar Kazam says his late wife was desperate for her family's approval.

"How could a father do that to his daughter?" asks Kazam of her father's decision to get her married off to her cousin. "He raised up a child all his life, loved and cared so much for the child, and finally he just decides that she’s no more his daughter - but a cow to go the market and sell."

Shahid reportedly fell in love with Kazam when she was already married to her first husband. Shahid first met Muhktar in 2013 after she returned to the UK following her wedding the year before.

In May 2014, Shahid approached a local Imam to seek divorce under Sharia Law, and four months later she married Kazam in a secret ceremony. Kazam has described his wedding day as one of the "happiest days of his life."