A Pakistani bride was arrested after milk she had poisoned in order to kill her husband was made into a yogurt drink that inadvertently killed 17 of her extended family members, according to the Associated Press.
District police chief Sohail Habib Tajak said that Aasia Bibi, 21, was married against her will in September in a village near the remote town of Ali Pur in Pakistan.
In a court appearance on Tuesday, Bibi told reporters that she was furious over her parents’ decision to marry her to a man she did not wish to wed.
“I repeatedly asked my parents not to marry me against my will as my religion, Islam, also allows me to choose the man of my choice for marriage but my parents rejected all of my pleas and they married me to a relative,” Bibi said, according to the Associated Press.
Bibi allegedly warned her parents that she would go to extreme lengths to escape her marriage, but they still refused to allow her to get a divorce and return home.
That’s when Shahid Lashari, the new bride’s boyfriend who she continued secretly dating after she was married, provided Bibi with a poisonous substance, which she mixed into milk and tried to serve to him.
Her husband refused to drink it, but Bibi’s mother-in-law later spotted the tainted beverage and used it to make lassi, a traditional yogurt-based drink, which she then served to 27 people.
Sadly, all 27 of the family members who consumed the beverage fell ill and were hospitalized. Seventeen died and ten are still receiving medical attention, the Associated Press reported.
Both Bibi and her lover face charges over the incident.
