JHELUM: Pakistani police officers escort, father Muhammad Shahid (fourth from right), and ex-husband Muhammad Shakeel, (second from right), of slain British-Pakistani woman Samia Shahid to present them in a court in Jhelum, in eastern Pakistan, yesterday. — AP

JHELUM, Pakistan: A Pakistani court yesterday adjourned the case of a British-Pakistani woman's murder until Sept. 23 to give police more time to finalize charges against her father and ex-husband, who are accused of slaying her in the name of honor, police and lawyers said.

Police brought both men before the court in Jhelum as they covered their faces. They avoided most questions from journalists. However, when pressed, the woman's father, Mohammad Shahid, told reporters that the accusations are "all lies." "The police arrested me, police charged me, you go to police station and check my report, check my statement," Shahid said.

The death of 28-year-old Samia Shahid has shocked the nation as the latest alleged case of so-called "honor killings" in Pakistan. The Bradford native's death while visiting Pakistan in July was originally declared to be from natural causes.

But Shahid's second husband, Mukhtar Kazim, publicly accused her family of killing her. The case was reopened and a police probe quickly concluded that Shahid's death was a "premeditated, cold-blooded murder," according to a police statement. Police allege that Mohammed Shahid stood guard while his daughter's ex-husband, Mohammed Shakeel, raped her. The men then both strangled her, according to police.

Defense lawyer Mohammed Arif dismissed the police allegations as a baseless, saying his clients have been wrongly accused. He said he will appeal another court's recent rejection of bail for Mohammed Shahid. Samia Shahid married her first husband in February 2012 but stayed only briefly in Pakistan before returning to England where she obtained a divorce two years later. She later married Kazim and moved with him to Dubai.

Najful Hussain Shah, the lawyer for Kazim, told reporters that he will seek the death penalty. He said Shahid's mother and sister tricked her into visiting Pakistan in July by saying her father was gravely ill and that the women fled to Britain after her murder. He said the Pakistani government is trying to bring them back for questioning.

Death toll jumps

Meanwhile, the death toll from a Taleban suicide bomb attack on a mosque in northwest tribal Pakistan rose to 30 yesterday, officials said. The Friday attack targeted a mosque in the Mohmand tribal district bordering Afghanistan where the army has been fighting against Taleban militants. "Two more injured people died of their wounds early today raising the death toll to 30," deputy chief of the Mohmand tribal district administration Naveed Akbar told AFP.

The bomber came in as Friday prayers were in progress and blew himself up in the main hall. A curfew has been imposed in the area since the bombing. Taleban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out to avenge the deaths of 13 of its members and arrests of others by a local vigilante force in 2009.

Since 2007 the government has encouraged vigilante forces comprising tribesmen-locally known as peace committees-to defend their villages against the Taleban. Pakistan's deadliest ever attack occurred in Peshawar in December 2014, when Taleban militants stormed a school killing more than 150 people, mostly children.

The army launched an operation in June 2014 in a bid to wipe out militant bases in the northwestern tribal areas and so bring an end to the bloody insurgency that has cost thousands of civilian lives since 2004. Last year, the country recorded its lowest number of killings since 2007, when the Pakistani Taleban was formed. - Agencies