A matter of rights: Man accuses in-laws of selling his wife

MANSEHRA:

A man has accused his in-laws of not just marrying his wife off to another man without getting a divorce, but selling her for Rs200,000.

Saleh Muhammad, a daily wager, had been employed in Karachi for the last three years, he told members of the press in Mansehra on Friday. His wife Sughra Bibi and their two children had been living with her parents while he was away.

According to Saleh Muhammad, his father-in-law Gulzar called him six months ago, asking him to take Sughra and the children to live in Karachi. Then last month, Saleh Muhammad said, he received a call from his brother-in-law, asking him to come back home with his family to avoid the summer heat in the metropolis.

“The day after I reached, my father and brother-in-law beat me black and blue and left me at a deserted place near Shimla Hill in Abbottabad.” He said they threatened him to never come back to their house or try to meet his wife and children.

Saleh Muhammad said the very next day, his in-laws solemnized his wife’s nikkah with a man from Havelian for Rs200,000. His wife and he have not divorced, he said, adding he registered an FIR at the City police station in Abbottabad but no action has been taken yet.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2014.