‘Blinding’ rejection: Cop pokes out woman’s eyes

Constable Kaloro had been stalking Najia and pressuring her to divorce her husband and marry him.

MULTAN:

A police official tortured and blinded a woman for refusing to marry him on Monday.

According to area residents, Nawabpur resident Najia had been married to Malik Shabeer for 16 years and has two children. “For several months she was being stalked by a constable Khusheed Kaloro. She even told her husband but the police officer kept pursuing her,” Najia’s neighbour Madeeha told reporters.

After repeatedly rejecting him, Najia told Kaloro that she would not divorce her husband for him four days ago. Following the argument, on Monday, the police constable threatened her husband Malik Shabeer that he would publicly humiliate his wife. “He came to our house on Sunday and said that if my husband did not divorce me and let me marry him he would humiliate us. He said he would tell everyone that I was a prostitute,” Najia told reporters. “Shabeer asked me to leave him for my safety. So I took the children to my parents house,” she said.

Najia and her children went to stay with her parents seeking protection. Najia’s parents asked her to divorce her husband and marry Abdul Aziz in stead. “They had always wanted her to marry her cousin and said they could arrange it in a week if she divorced her husband,” a servant at the house told police.

On Monday, Khursheed broke into Najia’s house with his friend and beat her parents. He then attacked Najia and beat her with a pedestal fan.

“She fainted and when we took her to the hospital doctors told us she was blind,” her neighbour Manzoor said.

Najia was taken to Nishtar Hospital and doctors said that Kaloro had poked out her eyes with a sharp object. “She will never see again but we haven’t told her yet to spare her the pain,” SAID Dr Zeeshan Muhammad.

Neighbours said that Khursheed Kaloro had visited the residence of the victim several times and had threatened her life.

Najia and her family have appealed to Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudary and chief minster Punjab to take notice of the event and have pleaded for the justice. Gulgasht police District Superintendent Police (DSP) Maqbool Chaudhry told The Express Tribune that action will be taken according to the law. “Her case will be given full consideration but we are still waiting on a medical report before pursuing the case,” he said.

“The police will not pursue this case. They have asked us for a medical report even though we immediately issued one stating the girl had been brutally tortured,” Dr Zeeshan said.

Najia said that the police had been pressurising her to make a deal with Khursheed Kaloro. “They even went so far to say that I should marry him within the week. How can I marry the man who did this to me?” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2011.