Barber’s eyes gouged out over extramarital affair

Yousaf Khan was kidnapped by a land owning family for his relationship with a married woman.

LAHORE:

A barber was left fighting for his life after being horrifically mutilated over a relationship with a married woman from an influential local family, police said on Thursday.

Officers said that Yousaf Khan, 32, was kidnapped by seven members of a land owning family who gouged his eyes out with a knife before cutting off his ears, nose, lips and tongue.

The bloody incident took place in Mirzapur village in Okara district, around 120 kilometres east of Lahore.

“Yousaf Khan was blamed for an illicit relationship with a woman. We have arrested five culprits,” Khaliq Riaz, a police officer involved in the investigation, told AFP by telephone.

Riaz said he hoped a man and a woman, also involved in the grisly incident would soon be arrested.

“The family said they had warned Yousaf several times over the illicit relations and they were forced to take this extreme step to punish the barber,” Riaz said.

Sanaullah, an officer in the district police chief’s office who goes by only one name, confirmed the incident and arrests. Khan was later taken to a local hospital where doctors were battling to save his life, police said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2012.