Pakistani man living in Brooklyn charged in 'honor killing'

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have charged a Pakistani man living in Brooklyn with orchestrating an "honor killing" of two relatives in an alleged dispute over an arranged marriage that he wanted to force on his daughter.

Mohammad Choudhry, 60, was accused in a superseding indictment issued Wednesday of having his daughter Amina Ajmal held against her will for three years in Pakistan, and then arranging for the murder in Pakistan of the father and sister of a cousin who helped her escape.

Ajmal is a U.S. citizen whose escape from Pakistan was aided by the State Department.

The arranged marriage was allegedly designed to help her husband get a U.S. visa. Choudhry, also a U.S. citizen, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Brooklyn Wednesday.

"The defendant viewed his daughter as a commodity to be bartered," said Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn.

" . . . We are committed to ensuring that people in the United States who export murder abroad will be brought to justice."