Man kidnaps wife for going against jirga

Sindh High Court orders police to register second FIR against him.

SUKKUR: The Sindh High Court Sukkur bench ordered the Ubaro police to register an FIR against Mehrab Khambhra and his accomplices for allegedly kidnapping his wife, Hajani Khambra.

Hajani had earlier filed a petition against the tribal council that had declared she was a kari.

According to Hajani’s lawyer, Iqbal Ahmed Memon, Mehrab complained to elders in Jamal Din Bharo village that his 32-year-old wife was maintaining illicit relations with Zahid Khambhra and should be punished through a jirga. Following his request, a meeting of the village elders was held under the leadership of Jamal Din Bharo in Khambhra village on October 18. Hajani was declared guilty along with Zahid, who was fined Rs300,000 and ordered to marry his one-year-old niece, Saima, to Aijaz Khambra, Mehrab’s son.

Hajani filed a petition against the decision in the Sindh High Court on October 26.

After hearing her petition, the court had ordered the Ubaro police to file an FIR against Mehrab Khambhra, Jamal Din Bharo and others, said Memon. The police had complied but nobody was arrested despite the FIRs being registered. According to the lawyer, Hajani had been kidnapped on Wednesday.

Little Saima and her father were produced in court on Thursday, Memon told The Express Tribune.

The bench comprising Justice Hassan Raza Zaidi ordered the police to register another FIR against Mehrab Khambhra and his aides. He also summoned SHO Ubaro to appear before the court on Friday morning.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2010.