Violence against women: Three women beaten and humiliated

One of them says she was gang-raped by her husband’s rivals.

MUZAFFARGARH/ GUJRANWALA:

Three women were beaten and humiliated in Muzaffargarh and Gujranwala on Thursday. One of them was also allegedly gang-raped.

Shah Jamal police said Rohina, not her real name, was allegedly gang-raped by four men. She told police that the men also shaved her head.

Rohina told police that four days ago the suspects had had a fight with her husband after which they registered a fake FIR against him accusing him of firing at the complainants. She said police arrested her husband. On Thursday, she said the four men entered her house and beat her up.

She said they then raped her and shaved her head before they left. She said they also threatened her with dire  consequences if she contacted the police. She said despite the threat, she lodged a complaint against them.

Station House Officer Mujtaba Gurmani said the victim was taken to a hospital for a medico-legal examination. Further investigations would begin after the result of the report.

For ‘marrying without family’s consent’

In another incident on Thursday, a man beat up his sister and shaved her head for marrying without her family’s consent.

Police said Nadia Bibi, in her early 20s and a resident of Langrial, had had an affair with her cousin Allah Wadhaya. They said her brother, Niaz, had stopped her from meeting Allah Wadhaya. They said he had threatened to get her married forcibly. Some relatives said this was the reason she had run away and married Allah Wadhaya.

On Thursday, police said, Niaz and his accomplices entered Allah Wadhaya’s home and beat up Nazia. They took her to a nearby dera and shaved her head. She was taken to a hospital by some passers-by. They told police that they went in the dera after hearing Nazia shout for help. They said she was half unconscious and lying on the floor. Her head was shaved and there were bruises all over her body.

Doctors treating her said she had several fractures in her arms and legs. Rohilanwala police registered a case against Niaz on the complaint of Nazia’s husband. No arrests have been made so far, police said.

Property dispute

In Gujranwala, a man beat his mother and broke her teeth over a property dispute.

Dhalay police said that Irshad Bibi, a resident of Galla Bao Khalid, has accused her son, Azeem, of the assault. She told police that Azeem wanted to sell their two-and-a-half-marla house. When she refused to give him the property documents, she said, he beat her up and threatened to throw her out of the house. She said he broke her teeth.

When her brother-in-law, Saleem, intervened, she said, Azeem also beat him up. She said he fled when they had both almost lost consciousness.  She said her daughters called some neighbours and took them both to a nearby clinic.

Irshad Bibi said she had four daughters, all unmarried. She said if she let Azeem sell the house, they would have nowhere to go. She has asked the police to give her protection from her son, who is at large.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2012.