Husband Of Pakistani Woman Stoned to Death Murdered His First Wife

Last week, the horrible story broke of Farzana Parveen, the 25-year-old Pakistani woman who was stoned to death by relatives outside of a courthouse in broad daylight for marrying for love rather than agreeing to an arranged marriage with her cousin. If you thought this story couldn’t get any worse, you were wrong.

According to NPR, the grieving husband of Parveen, 45-year-old Mohammad Iqbal, had actually murdered his first wife so that he could propose to Parveen.

Punjab’s Deputy Inspector General for Police Zulfiqar Hameed tells The Associated Press that Iqbal was arrested in 2009 for killing his first wife, Ayesha Bibi, but that the case was later withdrawn after a family member forgave the culprit.

As the AP notes: “Under Pakistani law, those charged with a slaying can see their criminal case dropped if family members of the deceased forgive them or accept so-called ‘blood money’ offerings over the crime.”

CNN spoke with Iqbal, who admitted that yeah, he totally killed his first wife because he wanted to propose to Parveen.

“I wanted to send a proposal to Farzana, so I killed my wife,” he said.

Oh. Okay.

Pakistani authorities have condemned the killings. Just as they’ve been condemning them with no sign of, you know, actually doing anything real to stop them. More than 850 Pakistani women were murdered by their families in 2013.