Domestic abuse: Pregnant woman ‘burnt by in-laws’

Young woman admitted to Civil Hospital, Sukkur with the right side of her face, right arm and both hands burnt.

SUKKUR:

A young woman named Koonj was admitted to Civil Hospital, Sukkur on Sunday evening with the right side of her face, right arm and both hands burnt.

Doctors were not sure whether she was burnt using acid or hot coal. Koonj spoke to The Express Tribune and said that she was a resident of Noor Wah, Shikarpur and was Abdul Rehman Kato’s third wife.

She had a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and was five months pregnant. She alleged that her mother-in-law Shahzadi and her husband’s other wives Dur Naz and Nooran often tortured her on one pretext or another. About two weeks ago, after a heated exchange, the women burnt her while she had passed out.

Heer, Koonj’s mother, who had brought her to the hospital said that after burning her daughter, the in-laws did not provide her with any treatment and instead, applied mobil oil to her wounds which only made her condition worse. Koonj said that she was not going to file a petition for the dissolution of marriage.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2011.