Domestic violence: Two arrested for torturing wives

Rubina Bibi burnt with heated iron, acid; Hafeezan Bibi made to stand on heated pan.

GUJRANWALA:

Two men were arrested in Gujranwala on Thursday for extreme domestic violence.

Gulshan Town resident Mubarak Ali was arrested by police called to the scene by some neighbours who had gathered outside the house after hearing his wife’s screams for help.

A case was registered against Ali at Civil Lines police station after a medical examination at Gujranwala district headquarters (DHQ) hospital confirmed inhumane torture.

“Her face and most of her body has been burnt by acid,” Dr Zafar Iqbal, who conducted the medical exam, told The Express Tribune. He said the woman’s body bore burn injuries from branding with heated iron.

Rubina Bibi accused Ali, his cousin Surayya and two nephews Irfan and Imran of cutting her hair and eyebrows, besides torturing her. She said she had left Ali three weeks ago and was living at her parents’ house. On Wednesday, she said, Ali came over and persuaded her to return to his house. “He had already planned the assault with his cousin and nephews. When we entered home they were already there,” she said.

Talking to The Tribune at Civil Lines police station, Ali confessed to the crime. “I wanted to teach her a lesson,” he said. He accused the woman of having extramarital affairs.

“I had been told by my relatives that she was seeing other men during my stay in Saudi Arabia,” he said. Ali, a labourer in Saudi Arabia, said he had recently returned to Pakistan with savings of around a million rupees. He also accused his wife of stealing his savings.

Civil Lines police have registered a case under Sections 34, 377 and 354-A of the Pakistan Penal Code. Section 354-A deals with crime involving use of criminal force against woman and is punishable by death or imprisonment for life.

In another incident of violence, a woman was made to stand on a hot pan (tava) because she had asked her husband to find a better job. Nowshera Road resident Hafeezan Bibi claimed in a complaint she lodged with Aimanabad police that her husband Abdul Aziz and his brothers had forced her to stand on a heated pan, causing severe burns to her soles. She said had it not been for some neighbours who called police to the scene she would have been locked at the house without any medical treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2011.