Safe and sound: Kidnapped women rescued after 8 days

Khokhar tribesmen had abducted the two women to avenge a freewill marriage

SUKKUR: Two kidnapped women of the Bhutto clan were rescued by the police on Monday. They were abducted from the Bagi Bhutto village near Dokri, Larkana on September 16 by some Khokhar tribesmen to avenge a freewill marriage.

Two years ago, Munawwar Bhutto and Marvi Khokhar had eloped and married. The marriage sparked enmity between the two tribes. The Khokhar clansmen threatened the Bhuttos to either return the girl or face dire consequences. The Bhutto tribesmen succumbed to the pressure and the matter was resolved amicably, sources privy to the matter told The Express Tribune.

Munawwar Bhutto did not, however, divorce Marvi Khokhar and filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court stating that his wife was being kept forcefully by her parents. Following the court order, she was brought to the court, where she deposed in favour of her husband. The court allowed the couple to live together.

Since then, the Khokhars had been trying to settle the score. Finally on September 16, more than a dozen armed men led by Akhtiar Khokhar attacked the house of Ali Akbar Bhutto and kidnapped Humaira, 22, and Kiran, 17.

The police raided different places to recover the women, and on September 22, rescued the women from the house of Akhtiar Khokhar in Faiz Mohammad Khokhar village.

Narrating their story to the journalists later, Humaira and Kiran said that Akhtiar Khokhar and his men had kidnapped them at gunpoint. “The kidnappers beat us on the first day, but then they only started threatening us,” said the teenage girl.

A case has been registered against fifteen Khokhar clansmen, including Akhtiar Khokhar, Aijaz Khokhar, Ali Gohar Khokhar, Mohammad Usman Khokhar and others, but nobody has been arrested yet. On Monday, the rescued women were brought to the court of judicial magistrate Dokri to record their statements.

The court ordered the police to first record the written statements of the women. The case will now be heard on September 26. Meanwhile, seven police officials were sacked by the Larkana SSP when reports emerged that they had been siding with the Khokhar tribe.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2012.