Protest registered: Police foil self-immolation attempt by complainant

The woman said police ignored her kidnap complaint.

MULTAN:

A woman tried on Tuesday to set herself on fire in front of a police station in Vehari to protest police’s alleged inaction over her kidnap complaint.

Police stopped her and took her to the Vehari district headquarters hospital, where she was given first aid. Police said the woman told them that she had been kidnapped by her husband, who had earlier moved out, and his friends.

Police said Maulvi Abu Bakar, a prayer leader at several mosques and seminaries in the district, had married Razia Bibi of Chak 45/WB 10 years ago.

They had five children in six years.

In the seventh year, they said, Bakar moved out and remarried. In the last four years, police said, he remarried four times, with the fifth being a week ago.



Police quoted Razia Bibi, a daily wager, as saying that she had been trying to convince Bakar to permanently return home, but he wouldn’t. She said he would visit her sometimes, but had stopped paying her maintenance for the children.

She said she had used up the money she had saved and received as charity to file a petition against Bakar in November 2013 seeking a monthly stipend according to their nikah agreement.

She said the court had given a verdict in her favour ordering Bakar to pay her Rs15,000 every month in addition to Rs700,000 for the last four years, he had not paid her a penny.

She said since the court verdict, Bakar had been trying to kill her. She claimed that his accomplice had tried to kidnap her, but she had managed to escape.

She said she had asked the Danewal police for protection, but had instead been harassed by policemen. She alleged that Sub-Inspector Nawaz Warraich had wanted to spend a night with her before he would register the kidnapping case. She said when she refused the sub-inspector had threatened to detain her. She said she had then decided to commit suicide in front of the police station.

SI Warraich denied the allegations. Talking to The Express Tribune, he said, the woman had fabricated the story. He said, “She was probably out of her mind”.

He said she had never approached him with the complaint.

DSP Zahid Niaz Gujjar took notice of the incident and ordered the police to register the FIR. He said he would also look into the woman’s allegations against the sub-inspector.

An FIR has been registered against the woman’s husband and his accomplices under Sections 365 (kidnap) and 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or shorter terms) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2014.