By Rabia Ali

Karachi: In a small house in the city’s Sachal Goth, a 25-year-old woman, with face buried in her hands, kneels down on the blood-smeared floor.

“These stains belong to my sister. She was hiding here when my father dragged her out and fired two bullets at her. But she did not die because of this. Doctors say her heart stopped working owing to the horror that was going on,” said the devastated Saira.

In a heart-rending story, on Saturday morning, a drug addict named Zamir Hussain Bhutto, murdered his two daughters – 21-year-old Marvi and nine-year-old Durre Shahwar – and injured his wife Habiba and 19-year-old daughter Farzana, and stuck his pistol’s butt across Saira’s face.

‘Brutal’ as described by Saira, her father Hussain was madly driven by his never-ending thirst for addictives. Seeing the family as an obstacle to selling the house and using the money to buy drugs and alcohol, Hussain decided to silence them all.

“My father – the murderer – took away my siblings from me. Marvi was my best friend and Durre the youngest was brought up by me. I am ashamed of calling him my father,” she says bitterly.

The women

Sitting on a charpoy and clad in a black shawl, Habiba, the wife of Hussain, tells The News how she and her daughters had been bearing the abuse for years.

Married to Hussain for the last 28 years, she says that in the beginning, he was slightly addicted to drugs, but with the passage of time he became a heavy user of heroin, opium and alcohol.

“When he had no money to buy, he used to beat us all with slippers, rods, belts and whatever he could lay his hands on.”

The beatings increased immensely after Hussain left his job as a security guard some two years ago, and sat idle at home.

Showing a mark on her arm, Habiba said he had pumped a bullet into it a year ago, threatening her not to tell anyone, or else he would kill the children.

Since Hussain spent all his money buying drugs, his daughters started working from a very young age to keep the house running.

Saira recalls after her Matric examination, she started teaching in a local school and later working at a beauty parlour. The money she earned was paid for her siblings’ education, groceries and was also given to Hussain in order to save the women from the spate of beatings. She also managed to buy a few electrical appliances which the house has on instalment.

“When I was getting married, he did not give a single penny to me. It seemed that narcotics were his family instead of us. He sold off his property, Durre’s cycle and other household stuff to buy drugs.”

After Saira’s marriage, the younger sisters took up the responsibility. Till the unfortunate incident, Marvi was working at a beauty parlour and sewed clothes and Rillies to earn a living. Similarly, Farzana was teaching in a school. Both sisters were also studying at a government college.

The man

“We cannot understand as to why he used to beat us up. Maybe he did so under the influence of drugs. He used to get so hyper and we were all scared of him,” says Saira.

She adds that as Hussain’s childhood was a happy one and he was greatly pampered by his family, his harsh behaviour seemed to be incomprehensible.

Hussain’s presence in the house created such a terrified atmosphere that the women tried to keep themselves out of his way. They bore the thrashings without uttering a single word and without letting their eyes be wet with tears.

According to the family, Hussain had cut himself off from his relatives and had no companions, and kept busy with just two pastimes, either to administer drugs or read detective digests.

“There would be no remorse on his face when he would hit us. It seemed that he would enjoy giving us pain. However, Marvi stood up to him, and resisted his beatings, and he used to hate her for that. Often, he used to hit the youngest for playing outside,” says Habiba, breaking down into tears.

The incident

On January 22, Hussain kept awake and did not sleep the whole night, roaming around in the small courtyard in the house.

After Fajr prayers, he forced his wife to come into his room (since they lived in separate rooms), and then struck her with an iron tool, before shooting her in the leg.

Upon hearing their mother’s screams, both Marvi and Farzana rushed out of their rooms, and were also shot at by their father. Marvi succumbed to the wounds on the spot, while Farzana, who was shot six times, is currently under treatment at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. Witnessing the horrifying incident, little Durre hid in her room, but Hussain dragged her outside and fired at her.

He then went to the house of his married daughter, Saira, with the intention of gunning her down.

“When he came to my house at 7 in the morning, he seemed so normal. He was the same when he took out a pistol and aimed for me. But I resisted and the butt of the pistol smacked into my face. My brother-in-law rescued me, and my father just fled.”

Habiba, is unable to forget the horrifying moments of the day. “The flashes keep on repeating in my mind. Neither can I sleep at night nor at day.”

She continues: “I do not know how I will live without my daughters. I endured the suffering for my children, as he threatened to kill my daughters if I told anyone. But I never had thought that one day he would. Now I just have one wish, that he dies a painful death. I pray for justice and his death.”

Source: The News

Date:1/27/2011