Father denies forced wedding plot

Shafilea Ahmed's body was found on a riverbank in February 2004

The father of a teenager whose body was found on a riverbank five months after she disappeared has denied trying to force her into marriage.
The decomposed body of Shafilea Ahmed, 17, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, was found on a Cumbrian riverbank in 2004.
At an inquest in Kendal, her father, Ifitkar, said he had not sent her to Pakistan to marry nor had he stolen her money or beat her.
While in Pakistan she drank bleach after meeting a possible suitor.
I've never discussed the marriage question between me and the daughter


Ifitkar Ahmed, father of Shafilea


The inquest has already been told Miss Ahmed confided in community and homelessness workers that she was being "beaten and robbed" by her father and mother, Farzana.
She also claimed that they were forcing her into marriage.
Mr Ahmed, 48, said: "There's no question of her being married. There's no potential suitor. I've never discussed the marriage question between me and the daughter.
"That discussion has never taken place. Where she's heard it from I don't know."
Mr Ahmed, a taxi driver, also denied claims made in evidence at the hearing by Shafilea's friends that he and his wife beat her and stole her savings.
Medical experts told the inquest the teenager was either smothered or strangled.
The girl's father and mother are both being questioned as part of the hearing by a solicitor representing Cumbria Coroner's Court and Cheshire Police.
Cheshire Police launched a murder investigation five years ago, but nobody has ever been convicted.
Her parents were arrested on suspicion of kidnap when their daughter went missing, as were five relatives from Bradford, but all were later released without charge.
In a personal statement written by the schoolgirl, as part of an effort to apply for accommodation away from her parents' home, Miss Ahmed said: "I had saved £2,000 which they took out of my bank account.
'Build-up of violence'
"My parents are going to send me to Pakistan and I'll be married to someone and left there.
"There had been a build-up of violence towards me, and my mother told me I was about to go to Pakistan for an arranged marriage.
"My mother had started to pack and my parents had been in to school to inform them we were going to Pakistan." A short time after Miss Ahmed returned from Pakistan in 2003, she vanished but was not reported missing by her parents. Instead, it was her teachers at Great Sankey High School who informed the authorities of her disappearance. The hearing continues.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...de/7180963.stm