Fearing for lives, free-will couple goes into hiding

Missing girl had filed a case against mother, sister.

KARACHI: Another free-will couple is on the run. The teenage girl, N, who married her former brother-in-law, had registered a case against her mother and elder sister for trying to kidnap and kill her, and her love interest. The pair has been missing since.

On May 31, Rangers had apprehended seven people, including the alleged accused and the victims, from the National Highway near Malir, when the abductees raised hue and cry during a snap-check. The girl’s sister, mother and two men, Mazhar Sherazi and Muhammad Akram, have been granted bail over the kidnapping charges, but the court has linked their release with the submission of surety.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Muhammad Zareen Satti, the counsel for Mazhar and Akram, said that the complainant married her brother-in-law on June 9. “Awan is still married with her sister as their divorce wasn’t complete,” he added.

Satti has acquired the couple’s marriage certificate through his connections inside the court and was more than willing to share the documents with this correspondent. In her sworn statement before the justice of peace, N has stated that she is marrying Awan in her full senses and that she is seventeen-and-a-half years old and has known Awan for two years.

This contradicts with the FIR she had earlier lodged with the Malir City police, stating that her acquaintance with her brother-in-law was of four years. N had stated that her sister S married Awan four years ago, but the couple separated around two months ago due to the woman’s extramarital affair with Aga Jan Durrani. He divorced her and went back to his native town, Nosheroferoz.

“Awan and I want to marry, but my mother, sister and Durrani threatened me and made me call him back so that the divorce papers can be signed,” N stated in the FIR. “Durrani had put a knife to my neck when I called Awan.”

The girl claims to have arranged a meeting between Awan and her family, but when the family arrived at the residence of one of Awan’s friends, around eight to ten men barged into the house, and took the couple hostage. “They dragged us into a taxi. We were rescued when we shouted as the car was crossing a check post,” she added.

However, Abdul Rauf Afridi, the counsel for the accused women, disagrees. “N had lived with Awan for a couple of months before returning home to live with her mother,” he said. “How can a mother kidnap her own daughter? And why was N not taken hostage when the family was going to get the divorce papers signed,” he argued.

Awan, in his statement, said that after marrying S, he came to know that she had already been married twice and also had illicit relations with Durrani. “When I asked her about their relationship, she asked for a divorce and the man threatened to kill me,” he stated.

In May, the girls’ mother had also lodged an FIR with the Baldia Town police, suspecting her former son-in-law to be involved in a burglary at her house, when Rs300,000 and five tolas gold were stolen.

Afridi said that three to four FIRs were already registered against Awan at different police stations. “After the arrest, Awan was in the custody of Malir City police for four days, but his arrest was not declared,” he claimed. “The couple have been missing since then and there is no clue about their whereabouts.”

N’s counsel, Farooq Sherazi, said the suspected women were sent to the women police station, but could not confirm the whereabouts of his client.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2012.