Lassi drink
An Indian waiter serves glasses of lassi at The Punjabi Lassi Stall in Amritsar on April 16, 2010. Lassi is made by blending yogurt with water, milk and spices and is popular across South Asia and with South Asian communities across the world. Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani woman in a forced marriage, poisoned her husband's milk which his mother later used to make Lassi for their family. Bibi's husband and 17 of his family members died. She and her boyfriend, who helped her orchestrate the plot, were charged with murder. NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images

A Pakistani woman and her boyfriend were charged with murdering the woman’s husband and 17 members of his family to escape a forced marriage. She and her boyfriend will face trial Tuesday, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Aasia Bibi told her parents if they forced her to marry her cousin, she would take drastic measures to exit the marriage.

Bibi, 21, was in a relationship with her boyfriend, Shahid Lashari, and wanted to marry him instead. According to police, Bibi attempted to kill her husband, Mohamed Amjad, by spiking his milk with rat poison. Amjad did not drink the milk, but his mother used it to make the Lassi yogurt drink for 27 of her family members, including Amjad, BBC reported.

Investigators concluded Bibi obtained the poison from Lashari. All 27 family members became sick and were hospitalized. Amjad and 17 others, which included eight children, would die from the poisoning.

“I repeatedly asked my parents not to marry me against my will as my religion, Islam, also allows me to choose the man of my choice for marriage but my parents rejected all of my pleas and they married me to a relative,” Bibi said to a judge after her Oct. 31 hearing.

Local police chief Zulfiqar Ali said police quickly became aware of the deaths.

“[Bibi’s] husband was in critical condition at a hospital and she looked as if nothing had happened and she was cool and calm at her home and it raised suspicions,” he said.

Authorities of the southwest city of Muzaffargarh in Pakistan began an investigation to discover what happened. Prior to detaining Bibi, they confiscated her cellphone data and concluded she contacted Lashari after the attempted poisoning.

Police also arrested Bibi’s aunt Zarina Begum, 49, for her role in the events. Lashari told police she would provide her home for him to meet with Bibi and that she was aware of the plan to kill Amjad. Lashari admitted he provided Bibi with the poison, and she confessed to her involvement in the murder after seeing him in handcuffs at the police station.

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