A close shave: Landlords shave barber’s head for refusing to visit

SARGODHA: In Bhowana, a group of local landlords tortured a barber and shaved his head, eyebrows and moustache after he refused to visit a dera to cut a land lord’s hair. The barber was also forcibly paraded through streets on a donkey.

According to Bhowana area 226GB resident barber Saifullah, influential landlords’s from Bharwana Chak had asked him to visit their dera but he refused them. “Making a visit to their home would have meant I would lose an entire day’s business,” Saifullah said, adding that he had told the men to visit his salon, after which the landlord’s abducted him and shaved his head, eyebrows, moustache and beard and forced him to parade through streets on a donkey.

The men publicly ridiculed Saifullah and asked that he bark like a dog while they tied a chain and collar around his neck.

The barber told reporters that in spite of a medical report Langrana Police Station’s chowki Mangwana had not taken any action against the accused.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th,  2011.