Man abducts wife for demanding divorce

35 kidnapping cases are reported in province daily

LAHORE:

A man allegedly got his wife abducted for refusing to allow rukhsati and demanding divorce from him after nikkah in Kahna area.

Police said Hira Khan, a student of BS Honors, was married to Omar. However, the rukhsati ceremony was still pending. Meanwhile, the victim had filed a case for divorce in a court. The man was reportedly annoyed over his wife’s decision of separation.

He allegedly got her abducted with the help of two accomplices. Police have registered a case under section 365 (abduction) of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Police said they were conducting raids to recover the victim and arrest the suspects. Violence against women is rampant in Punjab.

Reports and surveys reveal an alarming surge in incidents of murder, sexual assault, abduction and torture on women. Just a week ago, a woman was stabbed to death by her uncle over a minor issue in Mughalpura.

The victim identified as Shamim Bibi had gone to see her brother where her uncle was also present. Both exchanged harsh words over a family matter. Fateh Khan stabbed her to death after the altercation. Two days back, police arrested a suspect in Shahdara Town who had murdered his wife on disallowing him to contract second marriage.

The suspect identified as Shahbaz Umar was married to his cousin Noreen Mazhar two years back. He allegedly had an affair with a woman and wanted to marry her. However, Noreen refused to give him permission for the second marriage. Umar stabbed his wife with a knife at night when no one else was at home. In his statement to police, the suspect claimed that some unidentified people barged into his house and killed his wife during a robbery bid.

Last week, a man was arrested on charges of murdering his sister and brother-in-law for asking for her share in inherited property. The incident took place in Raiwind area. The suspect identified as Ansar Javed had a dispute with his sister Beenish Hayyat. She was demanding her share in inheritance. The suspect along with his friends reportedly attacked her house with firearms. Javed shot dead his brother-in-law and sister.

Based on records of the first six months of 2020, a report of the interior ministry submitted before the National Assembly revealed that as many as six women and three children were sexually abused in Punjab daily on average.

Besides rape and sexual abuse cases against women and children, the province also recorded an average 35 cases of abduction and 11 murders daily during the first six months of 2020. According to the record of the first half of the year, 6,448 people were abducted and more than 2,000 were killed in the province during the period.

As many as 1,005 incidents of women subjected to rape were reported in the province during the first six months of the year, while the police record also showed 670 cases of sexual assault against children during the ongoing year.

As per a report published in February, overall 777,251 cases of criminal acts were recorded across the country in 2019 with more than half of the crimes committed in Punjab.

The report further revealed that the total number of cases registered in Punjab was 490,155, while KhyberPakhtunkhwa witnessed the second highest number of crime incidents in the country with 178,131 registered cases. A total number of 85,676 cases were registered in Sindh.

Peshawar topped in the crime rate among the cities in the country, with 38,926 cases registered during 2019. On the other hand, Kohistan district in K-P witnessed the least crime incidents with just 222 cases registered during the year.