A pregnant woman was allegedly tortured to death by her husband and five in-laws for wanting to visit her parent’s house on Sunday.
According to police officials, Chak No105-GB Sadar Jaranwala resident Sumera, 20, wanted to visit her parents and was four months pregnant. Sumera married Zafar Ali one-and-a-half years ago and recently asked him to allow her to visit her parents for a few days. The couple argued over the matter and Zafar’s family pushed Sumera down the stairs.
“It all started on Friday, when she asked him if she could visit her parents but he began abusing them. She asked him not to speak against her parents and he hit her with a brick,” said a servant of the family, Sarwar. “His entire family ganged up on her and began pushing her around and hitting her. That was when she fell down the stairs,” he told the police.
Zafar, his brother Bashir Ali, his sister-in-laws Shameem Bibi and Naseem Bibi and his mother, Shaiza Bibi, beat up Sumera. Neighbours of the family told police that they could hear people screaming and the servants of the house kept calling for help. “We heard them screaming. Later a servant of theirs told us to call the police on Sunday night. He said she was already dead,” said Rukhsar Bibi.
Sarwar told police officials that the family kept beating Sumera even after she had died. “She fell down the stairs and she wasn’t moving but they kept kicking her. When they finally realised she was dead they forced us to dig up a grave and put her in,” he told police. Sarwar said that Zafar threatened his and another servant’s life. “They told us that if anyone found out they would kill us like they killed her. That was when we told the neighbours to call the police,” he said. “We got a call saying she had died of a heart attack and that they had buried her without even calling us.
They said they couldn’t wait because her body would decompose because of the weather,” said Sumera’s father Umar Din. “We live in the next village, we could have been at their house in less then half an hour,” he added.
Din moved an application to the area Magistrate for a post mortem after exhumation. The court allowed the autopsy and doctors discovered that Sumera was severally tortured. “We spotted over 12 open wounds on the body and she had internal bleeding because of the miscarriage,” Dr Akram told reporters.
The police have registered a case under Section 302, 147, 148, 149 against Zafar along with Bashir Ali (brother), Shameem Bibi, Naseem Bibi, Shaiza Bibi and others vide FIR No.502/2011. The case has been assigned to Ali Huasain ASI for investigation.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 13th, 2011.
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