Pakistan teen burned alive for refusing marriage proposal

A young Pakistani woman died on Wednesday after she was tortured and set alight in the country's conservative northeast for refusing a marriage proposal from the son of a former colleague, relatives and police said.

Maria Sadaqat, 19, was attacked by a group of people on Monday in the village of Upper Dewal close to the summer hill resort of Murree, outside the capital Islamabad.

Grieving relatives outside the centre wept and protested at the teenager's death as police moved her body to another hospital for a post-mortem.

Abdul Basit, Sadaqat's uncle, told AFP that his niece had been attacked by the principal of the private school where she had formerly worked as a teacher, and by his accomplices after she refused a marriage proposal from his son.