HR group demands probe into Chitrali woman’s death

CHITRAL: Human rights activists in Chitral have demanded a judicial probe into the alleged murder of Chitrali woman Hajira Bibi, who was married in Abbottabad. Niaz A Niazi, president of the Legal Aid Forum for Human Rights, Chitral, and the organisation’s general secretary, Niaz Ali Shah, alleged in a statement that Hajira Bibi, who belonged to the Atani Ayun village in Chitral, was murdered by her husband Arshad, hailing from Dakhan Koal in the Abbottabad district. They blamed one Aslam, also an Abbottabad resident, for cheating Hajira Bibi by promising to marry her off to a high-ranking officer in Abbottabad and then marrying her off to a paralysed man, Arshad. “Aslam too had contracted a second marriage by marrying a girl from Chitral. He persuaded Hajira Bibi to marry someone in Abbottabad and that is how the poor Chitrali girl was duped and married off to a disabled man,” Niazi maintained.

He claimed Hajira Bibi had taken refuge in the neighbour’s house but was persuaded by her husband and in-laws to return home. He alleged that the same night Arshad and his brother beat up and tortured her to death. “Her husband’s family showed it as a suicide case. But we feel it was murder. We urge the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take suo moto action and provide justice to the poor and innocent Chitrali woman Hajira Bibi and her aggrieved family,” he stressed. The Legal Aid Forum for Human Rights urged the parents in Chitral not to marry off their daughters to strangers and instead probe the backgrounds of the families of men seeking the hand of their daughters and sisters in marriage. There have been numerous instances of non-Chitralis marrying Chitrali girls by duping their families through false tales of their wealth and status.
Source: The News
Date:12/24/2006