Pakistani Italian woman did not die of natural causes, confirms autopsy report

An autopsy report has confirmed that Pakistani Italian woman Sana Cheema was strangled to death.

Cheema was killed in an alleged case of honour killing and police officials in Pakistan have arrested the 26-year-old's father, brother and uncle.

According to reports, the girl's father, identified as Ghulam Mustafa, wanted to marry her off to a relative. But she wanted to marry someone of her own choice back in Italy. She was reportedly killed a day before she was set to return to Italy.

The autopsy report stated that Cheema's cervical bone was fractured.

Cheema's family had initially claimed she died of natural causes and they buried her body in West Mangowal area of District Gujrat on April 18. However, online reports soon surfaced alleging foul play, prompting investigation into Cheema's death. Her body was exhumed on April 25 and samples were sent for post-mortem.

Sadly, this is not the first case of honour killing coming out of Pakistan.

Until 2016, honour killing perpetrators in Pakistan walked away free after paying a small amount of money to the victim's family. But Pakistan introduced stringent measures in October 2016 following the killing of social media starlet Qandeel Baloch.

Baloch was drugged and then asphyxiated by her brother Waseem while she was asleep at her parents' home. Confessing to killing his sister, Waseem said "she [Qandeel Baloch] was bringing disrepute to our family's honour and I could not tolerate it any further. I killed her around 11:30 p.m. on Friday night when everyone else had gone to bed."

The practice of honour killing is widespread. Male family members often kill women for a number of reasons ranging from dressing immodestly to even talking to a stranger.

In 2016, 1100 cases of honour killing were reported, but the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan believes that at least another 1,000 went unreported, reported Abc.net.au.