A Bradford family employed private detectives, bounty hunters and hitmen to seek out and kill their "once much-loved" daughter and her husband.

She had refused to marry the man of her parents' choice, the Commons heard today.

The story of the couple was told by Labour's Ann Cryer (Keighley) during a debate on human rights for women.

She said her subject mainly concerned the treatment of Asian Muslim women by their families.

Mrs Cryer said they "committed the unforgivable crime of falling in love and ultimately marrying.

She said the girl's fate "had been sealed virtually from birth when her parents promised her to a first cousin in Pakistan, a young man she despised, regarded as arrogant, with no English, who treated women as beneath contempt.

"On the fateful day, when they decided to run away and marry they knew there would be problems."

"This was not to be. To this day a death sentence is hanging over them and through the years this otherwise decent Bradford Asian family have employed private detectives, bounty hunters and hitmen to seek out their once much-loved daughter for the purpose of killing her and her husband.

She said they even stooped to punish them by terrifying his elderly mother.

Mrs Cryer mentioned another case in which a girl called Asiya (not her real name) was forced into marriage with a much older man.

"After a few days of appalling treatment by him she waited for her strength to return and when sure he was soundly asleep made her escape."

But her mother ordered her to go back to her husband and threatened her life. The girl is still on the run, Mrs Cryer said.

"Our Asian women constituents are perfectly entitled to expect the same human rights that are afforded to us and to our daughters. They are also entitled to expect us to help them to enjoy those human rights."

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