The death of an Italian woman of Pakistani origin while on a visit to her home country is being investigated as a possible murder.
The 26-year-old woman died on April 18 in the eastern district of Gujrat in the central province of Punjab and the family buried her the same day, local police chief Waqar Ahmad told dpa on Tuesday.
Police registered a murder case on Monday after reports in Italian media that the woman had been murdered by the family for trying to marry a man of her choice, making it a possible case of "honour killing."
Hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan every year by their close relatives to punish behaviour they deem unacceptable and to protect the family honour.
A local court was on Tuesday expected to issue orders to exhume the body for autopsy to determine the cause of death, police official Asad Gujjar said.
Police questioned the father, an uncle and a brother of the woman and they told interrogators that she died of a heart attack, Ahmad said.
She had a chronic heart condition due to excessive drinking in Italy, the police officer quoted her father as telling the members of investigation team.
No one had been arrested so far, Ahmad said.
The family left Pakistan several years ago to settle in Kuwait from where they moved to Italy and became Italian citizens, Gujjar said.
Two of the woman's brothers live in Germany.
There are no credible official figures on honour killing because they often go unreported. According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), at least 376 such cases were registered in 2017.
