Dower dispute: Woman ‘burned by husband’ critical at hospital

Doctors says she is 70 per cent burned, unconscious.

MULTAN:

A woman was brought to Nishtar Hospital on Monday after she was burned allegedly by her husband over a dower dispute.

Saddar police have arrested her husband shortly after the woman’s father filed a complaint.

Doctors treating the victim, Aasia Bibi*, said that she was 70 per cent burned. They said she was still unconscious.

According to Aasia Bibi’s father Ghulam Shabbir, she had married Muhammad Azhar Iqbal, a resident of Madina Colony in Jhang, in 2008.

He said at the time of the nikah, the groom agreed to give her 300 grams of gold and four kanals agricultural land as dower. He also agreed to pay her a monthly allowance. However, after the wedding, he said, Iqbal refused to pay her anything. He alleged that Iqbal would sometime starve her saying that he could not afford the food.

Shabbir said Iqbal also stopped paying her the allowance after the birth of their son in 2009. He said this led to arguments between them and Aasia Bibi left home and started living with her parents.

He said Aasia Bibi also filed a suit for recovery of the dower. He said some elders of the family intervened and the case was withdrawn. However, he said his daughter continued to live with her parents. He said he and his wife finally convinced Aasia to return to her home and she went back two weeks ago.

On Sunday, he said, he was informed that Aasia Bibi and Iqbal had had a fight and that he had beaten her badly. He said he went to their home and settled the dispute.

On Monday, he said, he again went to see his daughter and found that she had been taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital with burn injuries. He said he rushed to the hospital, where he was told that she had apparently attempted suicide by putting diesel oil on herself and setting herself on fire.

She was later referred to Nishtar Hospital in Multan.

Shabbir did not buy her in-laws’ account and filed a complaint against Iqbal for attempted murder. He said he was certain that he and his family had tried to kill his daughter.

Nishtar Hospital Assistant Medical Superintendent Pervaiz Haider told The Express Tribune that the victim’s condition was critical. He said her face, chest, abdomen and arms were badly burned. There were also burns on the legs.

Investigation Officer Zulfiqar Mehar told The Express Tribune that the suspect’s sister-in-law Naseem Bibi was also named in the FIR. He said police were looking for her.

*The victim’s name has been changed to protect her identity

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2013.