Last resort: Woman tries to kill herself outside PA

Police stopped her before she could light the match but she drank some oil.

LAHORE:

A woman doused herself in kerosene oil and tried to set herself on fire in front of the Punjab Assembly on Monday. Policemen deployed there for security managed to stop her from burning herself.

Fauzia Bibi, 30, a resident of Mor Aimanabad, Gujranwala, had been standing at the Charing Cross Square with her husband, Shakeel Ahmad, carrying a bottle of kerosene oil.

Police said she had been covered in the oil but some passersby and policemen deployed in the area managed to stop her before she could light the match to set herself alight.

The woman was taken to Ganga Ram Hospital because she had gulped down some kerosene oil as well. Doctors treating her told The Express Tribune that her blood pressure had been affected because of that. They said that her stomach had been washed and her blood pressure had become normal.



A police team later recorded her statement at the hospital. They said Fauzia Bibi told them that she and her family had been living in a rented house. The owner of the house had evicted them without any prior notice. She said the landlord had also refused to return the security deposit she had paid when she moved in. She said a week ago, when she went to ask the landlord for more time, he tortured her because of which she had a miscarriage.

Talking to The Express Tribune at the hospital, Fauzia Bibi said the Gujranwala police had refused to register a case against the landlord even though she told them about the miscarriage.

She said that the police told her to vacate the house instead. “So I decided to kill myself.”

Fauzia Bibi also claimed that the police took her to Civil Lines police station instead of a hospital even though they knew that she had ingested kerosene oil.

Civil Lines Station House Officer Abid Rasheed denied the claim and said that there was no need to take her to the police station. He said they had not registered a case against the woman or her husband. He said the husband was the real culprit as he had been egging her on to set herself on fire. He said the woman had confirmed this as well.

Later, Gujranwala City Police Officer Raja Riffat Mukhtar sent a police team to Lahore which took the couple back to Gujranwala to hear their complaints against the police.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2014.