Crimes against women: Acid used to ‘punish’ unrelenting wives

Two wives who did not want to return to their husbands attacked.

FAISALABAD:

Two incidents of dousing estranged wives with acid were reported from Khurarianwala and Bhowana on Friday.

Khurarianwala police told The Express Tribune that Saima Bibi, a resident of Chak234-JB, had married Muhammad Liaquat two months ago. They soon had a falling out. According to her family, Liaquat was an abusive husband who would regularly beat her.

Saima Bibi moved to her parents’ house two weeks ago. Liaquat had tried to persuade his wife to return to him. He had requested the families’ elders to intervene as well, but Saima Bibi had refused.

Liaquat went to his in-laws’ house with a bottle of acid on Saturday and threw it on Saima Bibi. She received burn injuries on her face, shoulders, chest and belly.

Her family took her to a local hospital from where she was referred to Allied Hospital.

Dr Muhammad Anwar, from the Emergency Ward, said, “Saima Bibi ... may lose her eyesight. We are providing her intensive care but her condition is still critical.”

The Khurarianwala SHO told The Express Tribune that they had received a complaint in this regard and were waiting for the medical report. “We have also formed a team to trace Saima Bibi’s husband.

He will be arrested shortly,” he said.

Javaid Gulzar, a resident of Hindlana, Bhowana, and his brother Shahid Ali went to the former’s in-laws’ house to persuade his wife Shameem Bibi to return to him. He had earlier asked family elders to intervene on his behalf but she had refused.

Gulzar threw acid on her and started a fire at his in-laws’ house. Shameem Bibi has been taken to the Jaranwala Tehsil Headquarters Hospital where her condition is said to be stable.

In yet another incident, Muhammad Ali, a resident of Chak 76-RB, had had a squabble with his wife Nusrat Bibi. He beat her up, doused her with kerosene oil and tried to set her alight. However, she managed to escape to a neighbour’s house.

She then went to her father’s house in Ali Colony, Jaranwala, and told him about the incident.

Complaints in all the three incidents have been filed with the relevant police stations, but no arrests have been made yet.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2013.