Man chops off wife’s nose, fingers

LARKANA: A man chopped off his wife’s nose and fingers with an axe after a dispute in the Ali Nawaz Magsi village, Shahdadkot district on Saturday.

Shabbir Magsi fled from his house after critically injuring his 30-year-old wife, Sohni. Apart from her nose and fingers, he hit her shoulder and head with the butt of the axe.

She was admitted to the Chandka Medical Hospital, Larkana, and on Sunday, she was moved from the emergency centre to the neurosurgery ward.

Meanwhile, Naseeba, Sohni’s mother, said her daughter was out of danger but the doctors have asked her not to speak because of the nose and lip injury.

Her husband was depressed and had been diagnosed with a psychological disorder, she said. “Shabbir, his wife and three children had to evacuate the village because of the floods and returned three months later. Even after his return, he was still unemployed and was struggling terribly to make ends meet. He slowly slipped into depression.”

He had been fighting a lot lately and this was the second attack on Sohni, according to the victim’s mother.

Shabbir’s father, Ghulam Dastigir, was asked how the incident happened as cutting off someone’s nose and fingers requires precise aim and is unlikely to be done in a psychological fit. “He was about to hit her head but she tried to save herself and so her fingers and nose were cut,” he explained.

Kambar-Shahdadkot DPO Azfar Mahesar said that an FIR has been registered against the accused on behalf of the state. “Sohni’s family did not want to file a case because they said it was a family matter. But we had to because it’s a matter of human rights,” he said. The DPO said that home minister Zulfiqar Mirza talked to him and called for the immediate arrest of the accused. The police raided many areas on Sunday to look for him, Mahesar added.

Meanwhile, food minister Mir Nadir Ali Magsi gave Rs15,000 to Sohni’s family in compensation.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2010.