My father’s wedding: Prayer leader beaten up by children of 50-year-old newlywed

Two of the groom’s sons arrested, police say medical report awaited .

FAISALABAD: “They stopped me on my way to the mosque ... They took me to their Dera...They were very rude....They slapped me, punched me, kicked me... It was when they tried to cut my beard that I panicked”, said Hafiz Muhammad Ramazan the prayer leader at a Mamu Kanjan mosque of his ordeal.

Ramazan said he had been kidnapped and beaten, of all things, for performing a nikah.

Ramazan had pronounced Bashir Ahmad and Malkan Bibi, both 50 something, man and wife on Thursday.

He said the two had freely decided to marry each other. “There was clearly no coercion and the nikah was performed in the presence of two witnesses. It is permissible in Islam as well as in the law of the land.

“They accused me of coercion and pronouncing an invalid marriage which is not true.”



Police said Ahmad and Bibi,both residents of Chak 201-GB of the Torianwala region, had been lonely after the death of their spouses.

Ramazan said his tormentors included Ahmad’s sons Yasir Amin, Ehsan, Khalid and Nadeem as well as some people he did not recognise.

His shouting attracted the villagers and a number of them  people gathered around the Dera.

Some of them hurled rocks at the suspects who responded with firing in the air to frighten the crowd away. Police were then called and rescued Ramazan.

The Mureed Wala SHO said the police had caught Yasir Amin and Ehsan. He said they were waiting for the medical examination report to proceed further with the complaint.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2013.