Scary short-cuts: Woman tortured for passing through landlord’s fields

Nasreen Elahi, owner of a small piece of land, was attacked with sticks and scythe.

UCH SHAREEF: A woman was tortured after she tried to pass through the village of a local landlord without permission.

Nasreen Elahi, a mother of two, is a resident of local village Kuks near Uch Sharif. Nasreen owns a small piece of land and on Wednesday, after pouring fertiliser over the land she was attacked on her way back home. “I did my work for the day and while I was headed home I decided to take a shorter route through the fields,” Nasreen said.

Nasreen told the police, that she chose to take a short-cut through her neighbour’s lands owned by local land lord Saleem. Saleem and his accomplices beat Nasreen with sticks and cut her with a scythe for trying to pass through his lands. “Four men attacked me and I could barely see a thing because it was late evening,” she said, adding “I don’t remember what happened afterwards. I woke up in the hospital.”

Nasreen was abandoned in a nearby field where her son found her and took her to the Uch Sharif rural health centre. “I heard rumours about the attack and I immediately went looking for her,” Nasreen’s son Kashif said. Kashif immediately drove his mother to the nearby medical clinic where she was admitted to the emergency ward.Police have lodged an FIR no 16/11 under Section 337A-3 against Saleem, who has escaped. Rural centre in-charge Dr Ajmal Bhatti said that Nasreen had sustained  serious injuries but she would survive.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2011.