Brutal slaying of daughter shocks Italy

The murder of a Pakistani woman by her Muslim father has sparked a fierce debate in Italy about how to deal with the "clash of civilisations".

Hina Saleem, 21, was reported missing more than a week ago by her boyfriend, a 33-year-old Italian carpenter with whom she was living, after a visit to her family.

She told the manager of the pizzeria where she worked that she had been summoned home to meet a cousin who was passing through. Then her mobile phone went dead. When police broke into the house in Brescia, they found Hina's bedroom spattered with blood. In the garden, buried under a metre of soil, was the body of the missing girl. Her throat had been slit.

Mohammed Saleem, arrested two days later, allegedly said, "Yes I did it, just me", before clamming up.

Hina's boyfriend has suggested that she had been promised in marriage to a cousin.

Only weeks before Hina's death, Giuliano Amato, Italy's Interior Minister, announced a planned liberalisation of the rules for obtaining citizenship. But her murder and the public outcry have caused him to think again.

"It is clear that it is not enough to require adhesion to the values of the Italian Constitution," he said. "Adhesion to fundamental rights is also necessary, such as the fact that women are to be respected according to rules which I consider universal."

- INDEPENDENT