Day: January 14, 2009

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a report filed by the Lodhran district police officer (DPO) in suo motu proceedings against criminals who amputated an elderly woman’s arms.

A three-member bench of Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousaf directed the DPO to submit a new report on the matter on January 26.

The chief justice launched the suo motu proceedings while taking notice of news reports about the incident. The victim — identified only as Safia — is the mother of an alleged rapist.

On Tuesday, Punjab Additional Advocate General Qazi Amin submitted in court that two of the men accused in the case, Inayat and Boota, were in judicial custody, while the third, Yaqoob, was on pre-arrest bail.

In the report, the investigation officer had recommended that the case be cancelled.
Source: Daily Times
Date:1/14/2009

ISLAMABAD: DIG Hyderabad Sanaullah Abbasi has claimed a breakthrough in the Tasleem Solangi honour-killing case, saying he has found out documents signed by the local Nazim of the area giving details of how the poor girl, who was thrown in front of hungry dogs, was actually treated like a “slave”.

The powerful tribesmen having the backing of local politicians had documented the whole process, which finally ended in her physical elimination. This is the first time a written clue has been found in an honour-killing case which might help the police frame the participants of a Jirga that actually documented the whole process.

Meanwhile, the clothes that Tasleem was wearing at the time of her death, which might serve as an evidence of how she died, are mysteriously missing. Investigation officer Abbasi has also rejected the post-mortem report of Tasleem Solangi as unauthentic.

Meanwhile, two persons provided the DIG evidence of how Tasleem was thrown in front of hungry dogs before she was shot dead. Abbasi found out how a Jirga was actually held, whose decisions were properly documented by the participants. Even the local Nazim, Saleem, was present there and he too put his signature on these documents, which now police have taken into possession and might use them in the court of law.

“I am shocked to read the document which was signed at the time of deciding the fate of this unfortunate girl,” said Sanaullah Abbasi while talking to The News from Khairpur after recording the statements of about 30 people on the first day of his investigation into this crime against humanity.

President Asif Zardari had appointed Sanaullah Abbasi as investigation officer after rejecting the findings of MNA Nafeesa Shah. The president was dissatisfied with the report submitted by Nafeesa Shah, daughter of Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah, in whose constituency the murder took place.

Abbasi visited the village of Tasleem Solangi on Tuesday and interviewed the concerned people. He met the father of Tasleem Solangi, who confirmed that his daughter was subjected to the worst kind of torture before being killed. He explained to the officer how she was first made to run before the hungry dogs and later gunned down in front of his eyes.

Likewise, Sindhi journalist Ajeeb Lakhoo also recorded his statement in which he confirmed that he had seen the dog-bitten body of Tasleem lying in a pool of blood inside a police van. Talking to The News, Sanullah Abbasi confirmed that he had found out documentary evidence that a Jirga was held to decide the fate of Tasleem and none other than the local Nazim had signed those papers, which clearly showed that the girl was taken away from her second husband.

Abbasi said the Jirga had followed the official procedures of “handing and taking over” the girl as she was some sort of “commodity” and not a human being. Abbasi said the girl was taken forcibly from her husband belonging to the Kunhar tribe by her first Solangi husband after the Jirga decided that the accused husband would pay Rs 400,000 for remarrying the wife of Solangi tribesman.

He said the Solangi tribe took Rs 400,000 from the second husband of Tasleem but killed her afterwards. He said the father of the girl and the Sindhi journalist Ajeeb Lakhoo had confirmed that Tasleem was thrown in front of dogs.
Source: The News
Date:1/14/2009

GUJRAT, Jan 13: Police arrested a woman on Tuesday who had allegedly strangled her husband along with the abetment of her alleged lover and another accomplice some one-and-a-half-year ago after the additional district and sessions court judge cancelled her bail.

Accused Aaliya Bibi, her alleged lover Asif and accomplice Jamshed, of Mohallah Shah Husain, were booked by the City-A Division police for strangling Mirza Saad Baig, the husband of Aaliya.

The incident took place on June 2, 2007, but the matter came to light on Dec 5, 2008, when police arrested Jamshed while giving a call to Mirza Zubair Baig, the brother of the deceased, from a public call office that Baig was strangled by his wife and Asif.

Earlier, it was believed that Baig had died of a cardiac arrest. Police arrested Aaliya but released her on a phone call from PML-N MPA Haji Nasir Mehmood. The accused got a bail from the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Mah Rukh Tarrar some two weeks ago.

The body of the deceased was exhumed three weeks ago and samples were sent for chemical examination to Lahore. Co-accused Muhammad Asif and Jamshed are at large.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/14/2009

HYDERABAD, Jan 13: The Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad circuit bench on Tuesday issued notices to Badin DPO, Golarchi SHO and two private persons to appear in court on Jan 27 on a petition filed by a couple who claimed a jirga had declared them karo-kari for marrying of their own free will.

Ms Rajjo and her husband Abdul Razzak Chang said in their petition that Ms Rajjo had filed an affidavit before a magistrate on Jan 5, stating that her parents wanted to marry her off to a complete stranger against her will but it was not acceptable to her.

The petitioners said that after filing the affidavit, she married Abdul Razzak the same day and got their nikkah registered in Lyari, Karachi. Ms Rajjo lived in Garari village near Golarchi before marriage.

They said that after publication of a public notice about their marriage the girl’s father Soomar and brothers who believed in outdated customs and traditions and wanted to sell their girls for money pressurised Razzak’s parents to return Ms Rajjo or face consequences.

They said Razzak’s relatives were threatened that they would be implicated in heinous crimes but they refused to bow to them. After their refusal Ms Rajjo’s relatives held a jirga which declared them as karo-kari and hired criminals to kill them, they said.

They said that at the instigation of Ms Rajjo’s relatives the Golarchi SHO was misusing his official position by harassing and pressurising RAzzak’s relatives.

Police had arrested Razzak’s brother Ramzan and relatives Hanif, Hashim and others and kept them in wrongful confinement to pressurise them to produce the couple or face cases, they said.

They said that after jirga’s decision and threats by Ms Rajjo’s relatives, they had been hiding in different places to save their lives. Ms Rajjo had done no wrong but exercised her right of marriage of her own free will, they said.

They requested the court to direct the DPO to provide them protection and take preventive action by taking legal action against Ms Rajjo’s relatives.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/14/2009

Karachi: An 18-year-old woman was beaten to death allegedly by her husband in Qasba Colony.

The Pirabad police said that the suspect, Pervaiz, fled the scene after killing his wife, Aamia.

The police said that the family hailed from Dir and the woman was killed when her husband hit her with a club. The couple had married only two months ago. No case was registered till late as the police were still waiting for the victim’s relatives for lodging an FIR.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/14/2009