Brooklyn father who forced daughter’s marriage suspected in murders
A Brooklyn cabdriver who forced his daughter into an arranged marriage in Pakistan may be responsible for ordering the murder of two relatives in Pakistan on Monday, federal authorities say.
Amina Ajmal, 22, says she was held against her will in Pakistan for three years and forced to marry a Pakistani man, The New York Times reported. Ajmal was able to escape last month to a secret location in the U.S. with the help of the American Embassy. But when she spoke with her father on the phone, he demanded that she return to their home in Flatbush and that if she didn’t, he would arrange for her relatives in Pakistan to be killed.
Pakistani police reported on Monday that two of Ajmal’s relatives had been shot to death and another had been injured.
Mohammad Ajmal Choudhry, 60, was arrested outside of his home on Monday and charged with communicating threats and visa fraud. He appeared in court on Tuesday and was held without bail.
Prosecutors said the mother of one of the victims in Pakistan identified Choudhry’s brother as the shooter.
Ajmal said she was held in Pakistan under death threats and forced to marry a Pakistani man, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Choudhry was charged with filing a fraudulent visa application for his daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, and her groom, who lives in Pakistan and was trying to earn legal status into the U.S.
