Når man leser om tragedien i New York Post, forstår man hvorfor så ytterst få våger å stå opp mot vold og overgrep i æreskulturen. Men risikerer bokstavelig talt livet. Det er jo nettopp derfor politiet også i Norge sliter med å få vitner når unge kvinner som Rahila Iqbal, eller de tre søstrene fra Kaldbakken, drepes.
Amerikanske myndigheter besitter lydopptak av drosjesjåføren som truer med å drepe slektingene i Pakistan, som de fikk tatt ved hjelp av den kidnappede datteren, Amina Ajmal. Både faren og broren til Amina sier mordene i Punjab sammenfalt helt tilfeldig med at datteren rømte tilbake til USA.
A ruthless Brooklyn cabby allegedly kidnapped and shipped his daughter back to Pakistan for an arranged marriage, threatening to kill her if she tried to escape.
Then, when a sympathetic cousin helped her flee back to New York City, the irate father vowed to kill the relative and other kin if his daughter did not return to Pakistan, law-enforcement sources said.
But Amina Ajmal refused her father’s demand — and Monday, someone made good on the dad’s heinous threat to do harm.
The sister and father of the brave cousin who helped Ajmal flee Pakistan last month were fatally shot in the province of Punjab, authorities said.
Ajmal’s father, yellow-taxi driver Mohammad Ajmal Choudhry, 60, is being held by authorities in Brooklyn. He was charged with visa fraud after trying at some point to illegally arrange for his daughter’s husband to enter the United States, officials said.
Choudhry is expected to be charged with making the death threats, too.
The dad had allegedly forced Ajmal, a US citizen in her early 20s, to travel back to Pakistan more than three years ago to marry Abrar Ahmed Babar.
The cabby ordered his brother to hold Ajmal captive until the wedding this past November, sources said.
But Ajmal escaped back to the United States with the help of her cousin and the US Embassy. She agreed to participate in a wiretap to help the feds nail her dad.
In two taped conversations, on Feb. 20 and 21, Choudhry allegedly threatened the cousin and kin.
Ajmal’s brother, Shakeel Choudhry, 33, last night acknowledged, “My dad was angry and said he’d kill their family, but it meant nothing.’’ The timing of the murders and his dad’s threats “was all a coincidence,’’ the Brooklyn man said.