Delayed serving: Man scalds wife, daughter with tea

Woman gets 45 per cent burns, child 25 per cent; suspect missing.

GUJRANWALA: A woman was burned on Sunday after her husband threw tea at her. Their 11-year-old daughter was also burned.

The man then left home absconding leaving both the injured, who were taken to a hospital eight hours later by the woman’s brother.

Police said Mohammad Jameel, a resident of Kot Ishaq and a tailor, had invited some friends over on Sunday evening. They said he then asked his wife, Abida Bibi, to make tea for the guests. When some time passed, he went to the kitchen to enquire what was causing the delay. Abida Bibi told him that she had forgotten about it due to some work and that she was making it now. This infuriated Jameel threw the pot of boiling tea at her due to which their daughter, Sumbal, 11, who was sitting near by was also injured.

Police said he then left with his friends.

They said the woman and the child were taken to the district headquarters hospital eight hours later when Abida Bibi’s brother, Muhammad Ishaq, came visiting their house.

The doctors treating then said that the Abida Bibi had at least 40 per cent burns, while the daughter was 20 to 25 per cent burned. They said Abida’s chest and arms were injured, while Sumbal had suffered burn injuries on her legs.

Ishaq then filed a complaint with Dhullay police against Jameel, who has been missing since the incident. He told police that Jameel had beaten his sister and tortured her in the past as well. He said on several occasions he had taken her and her five children to his home, but they had always returned.

He said he and his wife, Rashida Bibi, had come to visit his sister.

“But when I entered the house, I found her in pain,” he said, while talking to The Express Tribune.

He said he took them both to the hospital and left his wife with the rest of the children. He said his parents had died and Abida Bibi was his only sister.

He said he now planned to take her away with him.

Abida Bibi told police that Jameel had been beating her. She said her hearing had been affected by the beatings.

“I cannot take it anymore,” she said.  She said if she returned, he would hurt them again for taking a “family matter” to the police.

Police said they were looking for the suspect.

In Chiniot, a woman was burned allegedly by her father-in-law following an argument on Sunday. Police said Sonia, wife of Ehsan, a resident of Chak 130-JB, had an argument with her father-in-law, Noor Din, after which she left home. She was kidnapped by her father-in-law with the help of his men and taken to his dera, where he doused her in kerosene oil and set her on fire.

Some residents of the area took Sonia to a nearby hospital, from where she was shifted to Allied Hospital. Doctors treating her said that she had 45 per cent burns. They said she would likely survive.

Sonia’s sister, Zehra Bibi, said she had gone to visit her sister’s house when the argument took place. She said her sister returned to their parents’ house, from where Noor Din kidnapped her and burned her.

Police said they were looking for Noor Din, who has been missing since the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2012.