Couple promised police protection after suicide attempt

Kotri residents had moved to RY Khan following panchayat ruling against them.

RAHIM YAR KHAN:

A man and his family were on Tuesday assured of protection by City A Division police after they were rescued from a suicide attempt at a railway track.

Mumtaz Ali, 28, and Shahida Mumtaz, 18, residents of Airport Town, said they had tried to end their lives over failure to get in touch with Rahim Yar Khan district police officer to seek police protection.

The couple came from Kotri tehsil of Sindh. They had fled their village five months ago after a panchayat verdict requiring Ali to give his elder daughter, Kiran, 10, in marriage to Shahida’s father for marrying her without his permission.

On Tuesday, the two were stopped by passers from the railway track and handed over to police custody for attempting suicide.

SHO Muhammad Younis told The Express Tribune that he had released the couple after questioning. He said he had also given his cell phone number to the couple and told them to contact him if someone from their village threatened them. He said the police would ensure their safety.

Ali told The Tribune that he had been visiting the DPO’s office for over a week but was not allowed to meet him. He said the Bahawalpur Bench of the Lahore High Court had already directed the district police to provide protection to the couple but no one from the police department had so far met them in this regard.

Ali said he had been living in the district for five months along with his two wives, Shahida and Khadija, and two daughters. He said he feared Shahida’s father or Khuda Bakhsh, the man he had wanted Shahida to marry, would try to forcibly take Shahida or Kiran back to Kotri. Ali said returning to Kotri was out of question. He said Bakhsh had contacts in Kotri police and would either get him arrested in a false case or kill him. Shahida said her father agreed to marry her off to Bakhsh but she did not want to marry him. “He is 80 years old. His daughters are my age,” she said.

The panchayat was convened by Shahida’s father and Bakhsh after Shahida, 18, marred Ali at a court in Kotri.

Ali said the panchayat where his father was present had ruled that either Ali give his daughter, Kiran, in marriage to Shahida’s father or pay him Rs1 million. Ali said his father was made to sign a judicial paper requiring him to pay Rs1 million to Shahida’s father. “We fled the village on finding out about the panchayat decision,” he said, “My daughter is just 10 years old. She is too young to be married.”

Ali said his first wife, Khadija, and daughters were comfortable sharing the home with Shahida. However, he refused to let this correspondent talk to her, saying that “it was against family traditions to let his wives talk to other men,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2012.