MIANWALI, June 21: In an attempt to escape torture of her ‘abnormal’ husband, a young woman from Chakrala has landed in further trouble.

Every door she knocked at, including that of her parents’, was slammed in her face. Her misery compounded when she finally got refuge at the house of a landlord. Currently, she is running from pillar to the post to get justice.

“An abduction case has been registered against Namal Union Council Nazim Malik Allahyar Khan, his sons Malik Shehryar and Malik Atharyar and others, but police are reluctant to arrest them. I will commit suicide outside the chief minister’s house if the culprits are not arrested and brought to the court of law,” says 24-year-old Farzana.

Narrating her story, with tears rolling down her eyes, Farzana says she was married to Arshad Iqbal of Chakrala three months ago, but the man was “cruel and abnormal and thrashed her frequently, without any reasons”. She left his house to get rid of his ‘atrocities’, went to her parents’ and asked them to dissolve the marriage, but they forced her to return to her husband.

Instead of going back to her husband’s house, she took refuge in the house of local bigwig Muhammad Mushtaq two weeks ago and asked him to free her from her husbandÂ’s clutches. Instead of helping her, Mushtaq kept her locked in a room for days and finally introduced her to Allahyar Khan, who already had a plan in his mind about her ‘use’. He asked Farzana to register a kidnap and rape case against his rival Muhammad Irfan and others and warned her of consequences if she refused.

“In the meantime, my mother succumbed to Allahyar Khan’s demand to save my life and registered a case of my abduction with Chakrala police against Irfan and his four friends.

She said she escaped from Mushtaq’s custody and appeared in the court of a local magistrate to record her statement. She told the magistrate that she was not kidnapped by Irfan and his friends, rather she had been detained by Mushtaq. She said that her mother had registered a case against Irfan and others under Allahyar Khan’s pressure. On her request, the magistrate did not send her to Darul Amaan and allowed her to stay with her uncle.

Farzana said Allahyar Khan, who is also opposition leader in the district assembly, and his men tried to kidnap her from the premises of the district courts when she came there for a hearing, adding that the accused captured her and tore her clothes, but some people rescued her from them.

The district police officer was not available for comment because he was out of his office.

However, Malik Shehryar denied Farzana’s allegations and said that their political opponents were using the woman against them.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/22/2008