Animal rage unleashed on pregnant woman

A landlord and his friends torture a six months pregnant woman over an incident regarding their animals.

VEHARI: A landlord and his friends tortured a woman who was six months pregnant over an incident regarding their animals.

The men hit her with a hammer, shaved her head, painted her face black and paraded her through the streets as a large crowd gathered at the scene.

According to locals there was a longstanding rivalry between two families in Borewala. Yasir Bhatti and Mohammad Amin were neighbours and regularly took their animals to graze in open fields in the village and stopped by a nehr to water the animals. On September 27, Bhatti took his cow to the nehr and Amin’s cows were already tied near the nehr. The two animals got confrontational and Bhatti killed a small calf belonging to Amin. When the family discovered the incident they reached the scene and harsh words were exchanged between the two men.

Later on during the day, Bhatti locked Amin’s family in their own house with the help of his friends and beat up his pregnant wife Rubina Bibi, his mother Rani bibi and his brother in law.

City Borewala police registered a case against Bhatti on the complaint of Amin and his brother-in-law and have arrested two men. Rubina Bibi and her mother Rani Bibi told reporters that on September 28, landlord Yasir Bhatti’s servants were taking the animals to the canal to water them when the animals were set loose and attacked her family’s animals. “We protested after several of our animals were injured and that was when Bhatti and his friends attacked us,” Rani bibi said. Rubina, Rani,  Muhammad Amin and his brother-in-law were tortured in the street. “Four of them started beating us with sticks and blackened Rubina’s face,” said Rani bibi, adding that all she and her family had done was protest the fact that their animals got injured. “We depend on these animals and we lost a buffalo in that encounter. Now we have no money to replace the animal and have suffered a grave loss,” said Mohammad Amin.

Rani bibi said that the family was paraded through the streets with their faces blackened. “They also beat us and my daughter is pregnant. We still don’t know for sure if she and the baby are all right seeing as they hit her with a hammer,” she said.

Area Magistrate Shakeel Ahmed ordered that district hospital Vehari MS conduct a medical examination of the family. Initial reports confirm torture on the woman Rubina bibi and police officials have been asked to file a case against the accused landlords for torturing the family. Borewala city station house officer (SHO) Aslam Cheema said that he had no knowledge of such an incident and had not yet received any application in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2010.