Honour Killing
A Pakistani NGO activist performs on the street in Hyderabad, India (Representative Image)Image Credit: Reuters

A woman has been burned to death in the Bhojpur district of India's Bihar state for eloping with her lover.

The woman was subjected to the gruesome crime by her own family members, who were angry because she had gone missing with her lover four days previously.

According to police, the woman had been brought home after a concerted pursuit by her family members, who set her on fire and locked her in a room - leaving her to die in there before fleeing the crime scene.

Police were summoned to the spot by villagers after they heard the woman screaming in agony. Although the woman was rescued by police and rushed to a local hospital, she succumbed to her injuries according to sub-divisional police officer Anjani Kumar Singh.

He said that a case been registered against the family members of the woman and that an investigation into the matter is ongoing. The family members of the woman are at large and a police hunt for them is on.

Cases of honour killings are not uncommon in orthodox and socially backward groups in many parts of India including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar, despite attempts from government to encourage and promote inter-caste marriages.

Earlier this year, a man was brutally beaten to death by the family members of his lover after the couple eloped. They had come back home at the vehement insistence of the man's family.

In November last year, a man and his two children were murdered and his wife critically injured for marrying against her family's wishes in Bihar.

The man was shot dead while his wife and two children aged three and seven months had their throats slit.

Last May, a widowed woman who married against her family's wishes was burnt to death along with her husband in Bihar. The murder was carried out by the woman's husband.