The incident was reminiscent of the treatment meted out to a young Afghan woman whose nose was chopped off by her husband sometime back.
The incident in Pakistan took place in Gujranwala district in Punjab province.
Aasiya Bibi's brother-in-law Anwar, his wife Kalsoom and sons Waqas and Awais caught hold of her and cut off her nose and shaved off her head, alleging that she had an illicit relationship with a local man.
"Aasiya has been living with her in-laws for over seven years and her husband works in Multan, so he rarely manages to visit," the Express Tribune quoted Aasiya's neighbour Nida as saying.
Nida said that Aasiya's in-laws were often cruel to her.
Police said that the family locked up Aasiya in a room where she lay for three days after the incident, till a police team rescued her after being tipped off.
Aasiya told the police: "I had been beaten and they didn't give me proper food. They locked me up and I was still bleeding."
Police officials said that when they found Aasiya she was in a terrible state and was promptly taken to a hospital where her wounds were stitched up. Doctors said that she narrowly managed to avoid an infection.
"We were surprised that her open wounds hadn't got infected even though they weren't treated for three days," medical superintendent Azam Skeikh was quoted as saying.
"She is currently receiving treatment but we expect her to make a full recovery," he added.
Aasiya's in-laws were unrepentant.
Her brother-in-law Anwar said: "She was having illicit relations with a neighbour. We caught her and this was her punishment. She deserved what happened to her...I should have killed her on the spot."
The incident is strikingly similar to that of Aisha, the young Afghan woman whose nose was chopped off by her husband and who later went on to become the poster girl of Taliban oppression.
The photograph of 19-year-old Aisha without a nose sparked an outpouring of sympathy. Her photograph appeared on the cover of Time magazine and it was accompanied by an article highlighting the plight of women in Afghanistan.
Aisha now has a prosthetic nose.