Road blocked over property dispute

Widow allegedly threatened with acid attack for refusing to give up house.

LAHORE:

Dozens of people protested at the Press Club on Tuesday, alleging that a widow was being threatened with an acid attack if she didn’t give up her property in Kamran Block, Allam Iqbal Town. The protestors accused the police and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) of backing her opponents.

The protestors burnt tyres and blocked the road for half an hour, causing a traffic jam around Shimla Pahari. They included Aroofa Bibi, the alleged ‘victim’, and members of the National Students Federation (NSF) led by Imtiaz Kamboh. They chanted slogans condemning Iqbal Town Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nasir Mahmood Bajwa, JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch and Nadeem Bara of Shabab-i-Milli, the JI’s youth wing.

Half an hour after the first protest, members of the Shabab-i-Milli staged a demonstration at the same location alleging that Aroofa was a criminal and the police were backing her.

At the first protest, Aroofa told The Express Tribune that she was the second wife of Engineer Abdul Aziz and the house had been pledged to her in their nikah nama. She said that he died a year and a half ago.

She said that Aziz’s first wife and their family were trying to oust her from the house. “Two day ago they broke into the house and took away valuables worth hundreds of thousands of rupees,” she said, adding that she had lodged a case with the police against them.

Aroofa said they had also lodged a theft case against her and litigation was ongoing over the property in a civil court.

She alleged that she had been threatened by the first wife’s family with an acid attack if she continued to refuse to leave the house. She said the Iqbal Town DSP was not investigating the matter impartially.

Some 30 minutes after the protest, dozens of Shahbab-e-Milli activists gathered at the same spot and also accused the Iqbal Town DSP of bias in the investigation. The protest, which was led by Malik Nadeem Abbas, Ibrar Wattoo and Saifullah of the Shabab-i-Milli, lasted around 40 minutes. They accused the police of engineering the earlier protest. “Aroofa is a member of a notorious gang of criminals. We have proof she transferred the property illegally. She drew up a fake nikah nama with Abdul Aziz as her husband,” said Abbas.

Iqbal Town DSP Bajwa denied the allegations from both sides and insisted there would be no bias in the investigation. He said the other party claimed that Aroofa was not Aziz’s wife, but the wife of his driver.

However, the neighbours had confirmed that Aroofa had been living in the house for several years.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2012.