Pakistani held in Italy for "honour killing"

ROME, Aug 15 (Reuters) Italian police arrested a Pakistani immigrant for the murder of his 20-year-old daughter, who investigators believe was killed because her family disapproved of her relationship with an Italian man.

Police found the body of Hina Saleem on Saturday, buried in the vegetable garden at the back of her family house near the northern city of Brescia. Her throat had been slit and her relatives appeared to have left in a hurry.

Hina's Italian boyfriend, with whom she had recently moved in, reported her missing on Thursday after she went to visit her family.

Locals told police her father, Mohammed Saleem, resented her relationship with the man.

''He has decided to exercise his right to remain silent. He seemed quite calm and aware of the accusations that are being levelled at him,'' Saleem's lawyer, Alberto Bordone, told Sky Italia television.

Italian news agencies said the woman's uncle was also being questioned.

The case has added to a heated political debate about immigration, just days after the centre-left government relaxed rules for foreigners to gain Italian citizenship.

Centre-right lawmaker Antonio Briguglio said yesterday the government should reconsider its plan, while a member of Prodi's Union coalition said the murder showed the left's ''rather idyllic idea of multi-ethnic integration'' had its limits.

Italy was shocked earlier this year by a revival of the Mafia's own tradition of ''honour killing'', when the nephew of a Mafia boss in the southern region of Calabria shot his sister for ''dishonouring'' the family by having a baby out of wedlock.

REUTERS MS BST0912