Blood brothers: Man sets fire to brother over lease

Rahman said that his eldest brother murdered Aziz because he couldn’t pay him in time.

BAHAWALPUR:

A man set his brother on fire over a property dispute on Saturday.

According to police officials, Mosan Wali resident Abdul Aziz and his elder brother Abdul Malik were engaged in dispute over their ancestral land. Abdul Malik allegedly gave his land to his brother on lease and after six month he demanded the lease payment.

“When he gave us the lease he said that it was for a year and we weren’t prepared to pay the money after six months,” said Aziz’s wife Majeeda Bibi.

Two weeks ago, Abdul Aziz was unable to pay the lease on time and his brother began to threaten him for payment. “We never figured that the matter was this serious. I kept thinking we would resolve it among the family,” said Aziz’s youngest brother Abdul Rahman.

Rehman told The Express Tribune that the incident occurred on January 2 when his brother, Aziz was sleeping outside his house. “He was asleep on a charpoy when Malik poured petrol on him and set him on fire. He then poured kerosene all over the house and tried to burn his wife and son also but they managed to escape through the window,” he told reporters.

Rehman said that Aziz was shifted to the hospital and he immediately called the police and told them the entire story. “The police didn’t cooperate with us and they didn’t even register an FIR. My older brother had already bribed a police official and they didn’t even listen to our side of the story,” he said.

Rahman said that Investigation Officer Rafiq Ahmed had taken money from his elder brother Abdul Malik and told them that they were lying. “He kept saying ‘It isn’t possible for a brother to burn his younger brother’ and we hadn’t even told him what happened then,” he added.

Hospital officials said that Aziz died from 75 per cent third degree burns to his body on January 13. “He was hospitalised but we knew that it was unlikely for anyone to survive burns that severe,” said Dr Mujeeb Qadir.

“We approached a different police station after he died and the police finally registered the case,” Majeeda Bibi said.

Sub-Inspector Rafiq Ahmed told The Express Tribune that all the allegations on him were completely false. “There is no case here and they are accusing their brother to claim his property,” he said.

A case has been lodged against Abdul Malik according to Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and a police team is searching for his whereabouts but he is still at large. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2012.