Pakistani Police Declare Bradford Woman’s Death a Murder

A Pakistani investigator says that police have declared the death last month of a UK resident of Pakistani origin to be murder.

Abu Bakar Khuda Bux tells The Associated Press Thursday that a forensic examination concluded that Samia Shahid, 28, of Bradford was killed by asphyxiation.

Shahid died in late July while visiting family in Pakistan of what were originally ruled to be natural causes. Her husband Mukhtar Kazim accused family members of killing her because Shahid had divorced her first husband, a cousin, to marry him. Pakistan's interior minister ordered the case reopened in response to his allegations.

Bux terms the death "definitely a murder" and says police are investigating Shahid's family members.

Nearly 1,000 women are killed every year in Pakistan by family members in so-called "honor killings."