Responding to a distress call on Thursday, the city police rescued a South African along with her two children from the detention of her Pakistani in-laws.
Twenty-eight-year-old Sajida Afghay and her two children Mahieer (3) and Farzana (11) were sent to the Consulate General of South Africa in Islamabad after she refused to return to her husband’s house. “I would not go back to my husband at any cost. He and his family put me in detention and would not allow me to go out for days,” Afghay told the police.
South African Consul General Col (R) Imran Haider was asked to produce the woman before the police on Saturday for her statement. “She was not in a state to record her statement when she was recovered by the police,” said City SP Capt (R) Muhammad Illyas. Her husband, Raja Sibghatullah, a resident of Bhara Kahu, told the police that he and his family were trying to “culturalise” his wife. He said they have been living together in Pakistan for the past five years.
However, Afghay said that he did not treat her humanly and restricted her movement. She managed to contact her country’s consulate and informed them that she was being detained. She was unsure of her location.
The consulate sought help from the police who traced Afghay with the help of the cell phone used to make the call. Sibghatullah did not offer any resistance when the police approached his house.
A police official said the couple were given a chance to talk about reconciliation, but Afghay refused.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 10th, 2012.
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It's called kidnapping and slavery in the rest of the World -- in Pakistan it's called "trying to “culturalise” his wife". The authorities should arrest the husband and anyone who participated in her forced detention.