Two people’s legs broken for refusing to honour vani decree

One-year-old was picked as vani eight years ago by panchayat.

ROJHAN:

Two men had their legs broken on Friday for refusing to hand over a nine-year-old girl in vani as ordered by a panchayat eight years ago.

They were taken to Shaikh Khalifa Hospital, where doctors treating them said that they would take two months to recover. They said they were out of danger.

Zakir Hussain, the father, and Sabir Hussain, the uncle of the girl, were beaten up by five men for refusing to honour a panchayat ruling given in 2004.

The girl’s brother, Nasir Hussain, had been accused of having an illicit relationship with a woman from the neighbourhood.

Besides declaring his then one-year-old sister vani, the panchayat had ordered the father, Zakir Hussain, to pay Rs25,000 fine to the woman’s family.

On Friday, when the woman’s family approached Zakir Hussain to demand that the girl be wed to her brother but he refused to give her away.

He and his brother, Sabir Hussain, were then beaten up and dumped on a street. Some passers-by took them to the hospital and informed the police.

Rojhan SHO Malik Shaukat Hussain told The Express Tribune that an FIR has been registered against five men Ismaeel - Ghulam Ali, Ghulam Shabir, Arif and Hashim. He said the police were also trying to locate the eight men who had formed the panchayat.

No one has been arrested so far, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2012.