The ‘step’ treatment: Woman sold multiple times by stepbrother

Maqbool Bibi said that Azam had stolen her property and was planning to sell her for a third time.

RAHIM YAR KHAN:

A man attempted to sell his step sister for the third time in Ameenabad on Saturday.

According to police officials, Azam sold his stepsister multiple times and had threatened her life. Moza Malkani resident Maqsood Bibis aid that after the death of her father Khuda Buksh five years ago her step brother Azam and his cousins Abbas and Iqbal had forcefully seized her property and sold her to work in a wine distillery.

“My father left me his property in his will. Azam’s mother died several years ago and he and his sister kept trying to get me to sign over the papers to them. They eventually seized the property by force and destroyed the will,” Maqsood Bibi said. “He sold me for Rs10,000 to a bootlegger, who made me work in a wine distillery for nearly a year. The illegal factory was located in the basement of his house and five other women had also been bought from other villages to brew wine,” she told reporters. Maqsood Bibi said she was sold on the central chowk after midnight to Nadir Shaheed. “I escaped from there after nine months but his men caught me and brought me back to him,” she said.

Maqsood Bibi said that she was locked up in a room for several weeks by Azam and then sold off to Hakim Abdul Qadir for the price of two buffaloes. “He forced me to marry the man and I had to sign the documents at gunpoint. He sold me for two buffaloes,” she told police officials. Maqsood Bibi said that her husband Qadir frequently beat her and made her work in his fields all day. “I finally managed to escape from Qadir two months ago but within a week of my having fled Abbas and Iqbal found me. They brought me back to Azam and he was planning to sell me a third time,” she said.

Maqsood Bibi’s neighbour Rehana said that she had knew of her situation. “I never knew the details but I did know that her step brother had recently sold her for two cows. When she came back she was terribly scared and I called her uncles and told them about the situation,” she said.

Maqsood Bibi’s paternal uncles’ Rasool Buksh and Allah Buksh arrived in Moza Molkani last week and approached police to register a case against Azam. “We didn’t know about what was happening to our niece after our brother’s death. These men have taken her property and we are resolved to get it back,” they said during a press conference on Saturday.

Allah Buksh filed an application with the local court in this regard. Maqsood Bibi, Rasool Bukhsh and Allah Bukhsh came to press club on Saturday afternoon and said that they had registered a case against Azam and his aides Abbas and Iqbal.

“These men were trying to sell me for a third time and have seized all my property. They have taken over my father’s house and are threatening my life,” Maqsood Bibi told the press.

“Abbas and Iqbal have previously been jailed on murder charges and Azam also has a criminal record,”
said Malkani Police station Superintendent Liaqat Gondal. “We have registered a case against the accused and are beginning proceedings. We are also searching for both men that purchased Maqsood Bibi,” he added.

Maqsood Bibi is currently living with her uncles’ Rasool and Allah Buksh and has been provided police protection until the court hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2011.