Samia Shahid death: Pakistan police probe 'honour killing

Police in Pakistan have launched a murder investigation into the death of a woman whose husband says she was the victim of a so-called honour killing.

Samia Shahid, 28, from Bradford, died last week in Northern Punjab.

Police are treating her death as suspicious after receiving information from her husband.

No arrests have been made but officers are investigating her father and want to speak to her first husband Choudhry Shakeel, who has gone on the run.Syed Mukhtar Kazam believes his wife, who had gone to Pakistan to visit relatives, was killed because her family disapproved of their marriage.

He said that before she left, her family had threatened her life.

Mujahed Akbar Khan, a district police chief in Pakistan, said: "There are many things which have to be verified by the authorities of the marriage and the remarriage."

But he said if the evidence being collected pointed to murder then "a murder is a murder".

The policeman said Ms Shahid's ex-husband "was on the run and I believe in a day or two we will arrest him".

He said his force was "continuously in touch" with the UK authorities and the Pakistani High Commission in England about the case.BBC journalist Philip Palmer, in Islamabad, said a post-mortem examination had been carried out on Ms Shahid's body and police were awaiting toxicology reports.

He added: "When those reports come back, and they don't have a date yet, if they come back and it shows there are no toxins in her system or there is no sense that there may have been poisoning or foul play, then the investigation will end."

Meanwhile, a relative of Ms Shahid's - a 32-year-old woman - was arrested by West Yorkshire Police on Tuesday over alleged threats against Bradford West MP Naz Shah.

A 37-year-old man has also been arrested over the allegations.

The MP had been calling for Ms Shahid's death to be investigated. She has written to the prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, calling for her body to be exhumed.

She said: "I'm not going to rest until I'm satisfied I know the cause of her death - we need to investigate it fully."