Rising from the dead: ‘Convicted husband did not kill me’

LAHORE: A woman – missing and assumed dead for six years – showed up before the Lahore High Court on Friday to tell the court that her husband, accused of killing her, had no role in her disappearance. Her husband, who was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, has been behind bars for five years. Shazia Bibi of Sangla Hill told the judge, who is hearing an appeal filed by her husband, that she was kidnapped in 2006. She claimed that she had recently escaped from her abductors and learnt that her husband had been jailed for her murder. Her father had registered an FIR against her husband Nazeer Ahmed for killing her. He had stated in the FIR that Nazeer, who he said used to beat Shazia Bibi, had killed her and hid the body. An additional district and sessions judge had awarded him life imprisonment after convicting him. After recording Shazia’s statement the court adjourned the case indefinitely.

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