Day: March 31, 2008

DADU, March 30: A man stabbed his wife to death just hours after spending the first night with her in Mureed Dero village in Johi taluka and another man shot dead his wife, mother of seven, in Salih Shakh village in Mehar taluka late on Saturday night.

Reports said that Amir Mastoi killed his wife Nazeeran Mastoi hours after the first night with her. The motive behind the murder could not be ascertained.

In other incident, Faqir Mohammad Khoso shot dead his wife Rukhsana Bhatti, mother of seven. The villagers said the murder was the result of a matrimonial dispute between the families of the couple.

Relatives of Rukhsana Bhatti held a demonstration in Mehar town, demanding arrest of her husband.

Police registered an FIR against Faqir Mohammad on the complaint of Rukhsana’s father and handed over the body to relatives after autopsy.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/31/2008

PESHAWAR – Two girls schools and a security forces check-post were blow up with explosive materials planted by saboteurs in Darra Adam Khel here on Sunday. However, no causality was reported.

The explosives were planted inside a girls high school in Sharkai village, Sarwar Khel primary school in Zarghon Khel area and at a check-post on a bypass road. The explosions resulted in completely destroying two rooms of the schools and damaging the check-post as well. However, no causality was reported in the incident. A sense of fear has gripped the dwellers of the area.
Source: The Nation
Date:3/31/2008

GUJRANWALA – Angry citizens on Sunday blocked GT Road and suspended traffic for several hours in protest against the assaulting and death of a minor girl at Pak Town Kamonke. Police used teargas and baton charged the protesting mob after failing to restore traffic peacefully.

Accused Nazir, 25, a resident of Pak Town Kamonke, took three-year-old Adina, daughter of a local trader, to his home and allegedly assaulted her.

Hearing the cries of the ill-fated girl, the neighbours rushed to the spot and caught the culprit red-handedly. They handed over accused Nazir to the police shifted the girl to hospital in precarious condition but she could not survive. After hearing the news of the soul-harrowing incident, people staged a protest demonstration on the GT Road and blocked the traffic.

The angry mob was demanding the instant execution of the culprit on the GT Road. Police tried to restore traffic and after failing to do so through negotiations, used tear gas against the protesters and baton-charged them. A case has been registered against accused Nazir and the police have shifted him to the central jail to avoid any untoward incident.
Source: The Nation
Date:3/31/2008

GUJRANWALA, March 30: A man allegedly kidnapped a girl, raped her and later strangled her to conceal his crime in Kamoke and a large number of protesters threw traffic out of gear on GT Road for an hour or so on Sunday.

The police later claimed to have arrested suspect Nazir, 25, and registered a case against him.

The suspect picked “N” when she was playing in front of her house in Park Town on Saturday, took her to a deserted place where he raped her and later choked her throat to death. The culprit also threw her body in the vicinity of her house. When the locals found the body on Sunday, they took out a demonstration on G.T. Road and blocked it by torching tyres because of which traffic from Lahore to Gujranwala remained suspended.

When the police reached there to disperse them, the demonstrators pelted stones on the police personnel, who retaliated by firing teargas shells and a station house officer and some policemen were injured in the ensuing scuffle. However, the protesters dispersed when they were told by the police that they had arrested the rape-cum-murder suspect.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/31/2008

MUZAFFARGARH, March 30: A married woman, a resident of a village in Muzaffargarh, was allegedly kidnapped on Feb 22 and sold to a third party for Rs40,000 and is still in the clutches of her alleged buyers, her family told Dawn on Sunday. They alleged that two union council nazims were pressuring them not to approach police or rights activists for the recovery of the woman.

According to Riaz Husain, of Mauza Bet Rawlay Wali in Shah Jamal police station area, her daughter, Perveen Mai, was married to Qaswar. He says that on Feb 22, Riaz Hussain and Razzaq Pehlwan allegedly broke into his house and kidnapped Perveen Mai at gunpoint. He says at that time, both Qaswar and he were in Sargodha where they are employed at a mill.

When they heard about the kidnapping of Perveen, they rushed to the village. He says that he consulted the elders of Riaz and Razzaq and pleaded them to return his daughter. The elders pledged that they would persuade the alleged kidnappers to return the woman. After three days, he heard that the alleged kidnappers had sold Perveen to Akhtar Nai and Allah Bachaya, also of the same village, for Rs40,000. He says that he approached the new captors of her daughter and asked them to release her. At first, they denied buying Perveen. After he pestered them, they admitted keeping the woman in their house.

He said that Akhtar and Bachaya demanded Rs40,000 for her release. As he was a poor labourer, Rs40,000 was quite a good deal for him. He said two union council nazims of the area — Malik Abid Mahmood Bhabha and Saleem Makwal — also intervened in the matter and gave him a two-week deadline to arrange the ransom or forget his daughter. The captors also threatened him not to approach the police or they would sell the woman to some gangsters in the interior Sindh.

Riaz says that he sold his households and borrowed some money from his friends, but he could arrange only Rs28,000 in one month, that was well short of the demand of the captors. When he approached the alleged captors with money, this time he told that Perveen would not to be returned to him because she was legal wife of Akhtar Nai. He said that Akhtar also told him that he had arranged a nikahnama or marriage deed, showing Perveen his wife.

Riaz says her daughter had already been married with Qaswar Hussain. He said her wedding took place just 14 months ago and the whole village knew it.

He says that he has not seen his daughter since Feb 22 and he has no hopes of justice from police as the nazims would easily influence the police.

When contacted, Mr Bhabha said that he had come to know about the matter just two or three days ago, and he was trying to settle the issue. He denied the allegations levelled by Riaz that he was backing the accused.

An official of Shah Jamal police station said they had no information about the kidnapping or selling of any woman called Perveen.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/31/2008