ISLAMABAD — The death of a British woman is being investigated by authorities in Pakistan as a suspected “honor killing.”
Samia Shahid was visiting her estranged parents near the city of Mangla in northeastern Pakistan when she died, police told NBC News on Wednesday.
But her husband Syed Mukhtar Kazim has alleged that Shahid's death was not due to natural causes and claims she was murdered due to her marriage to him.
Shahid’s father, Mohammad Shahid, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper that Kazim’s claims were “lies and allegations.”
Shahid married Kazim in 2014 after divorcing her cousin Chaudhry Shakeel two years earlier, District Police Officer Muhjahid Akbar told NBC News.
Shahid’s father and another cousin were being investigated in relation to her July 20 death, Akbar said. Her former husband was also being sought, he added.
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“The family are saying they know nothing. That she fell ill and just died,” Akbar said. "The doctors have not come up with their final forensic report yet."
According to The Guardian, 28-year-old Shahid was a beautician and lived with her husband in Dubai. She is originally from Bradford, England.
A "mark” was spotted on Shahid’s neck after her death, Akbar said, adding: “There was some foaming from her mouth, but that could be normal.”
Pakistani officials have been criticized for not grappling with the issue of honor killings, which occur when someone is murdered by their own family for doing something that is considered immoral and disgraceful.
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Naz Shah, a lawmaker who represents Bradford in the British parliament, requested that Shahid's body, which was buried soon after her death, be exhumed, according to NBC News’ U.K. partner ITV.
The death has become a high-profile investigation in Pakistan. Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday issued a statement promising a "transparent and swift probe" into the case.