File your reports: SHC issues notices to police, Darul Aman authorities on missing women

Three women had disappeared from the shelter, one of whom was being hunted by a criminal.

SUKKUR:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) Larkana circuit bench has issued notices to the Larkana SSP, the Darul Aman Larkana incharge, the relevant SHO and others to appear before court on July 23 and submit reports regarding the disappearance of three women from the Darul Aman on July 1.

The SHC bench issued these notices on a constitutional petition filed by Ghulam Qadir Chandio, who is the brother of one of the three escaped women, Nooran Chandio. The petition was filed through Ghulam’s lawyer, Sajjid Mahesar, who claimed that the petitioner’s sister was lodged in the Darul Aman for the last four months. The lawyer added that the story of the three women ‘escaping’ on their own accord has been made up by the Darul Aman administration since the women would have been unable to escape without support from inside.

The lawyer, quoting his client, claimed that the women have been ‘sold out’ by the Darul Aman incharge and to conceal the crime, a story of their escape was made up. The court, after hearing the petition, issued notices to the respondents to appear before the court on July 23 and submit their reports by then.

Background

The lawyer later told The Express Tribune that Nooran Chandio was living in the Darul Aman for the past four months after fleeing from her in-laws who were forcefully marrying her to her husband’s younger brother after the death of her husband.

The three women - Muskan Shaikh, Nooran Chandio and Nusrat Buledi - had disappeared from the Darul Aman, with the shelter home’s officials maintaining that they had escaped. The police, however, arrested six people including two watchmen and four policemen. An inquiry also revealed that the women could not have escaped the shelter home without inside help since they could not have gotten past the steel grills on the windows nor could they have scaled the 12-foot-high walls.

The women are thought to have been smuggled out on the request of notorious criminal, Anwar Narejo, the husband of Shaikh - whose real name is Umeedan Narejo - and wanted to take revenge as he blamed her for the death of both of his brothers. Anwar has allegedly killed Shaikh’s mother and has also kidnapped his step-brother.

However, the police have hit a snag in finding the women as the mobile SIMs that they were using are no longer in use. “Our main priority is recovering the missing women,” said Sukkur DIG Javed Alam Odho, who also holds the charge of the Larkana DIG.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2014.