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Woman tortured for refusing to withdraw dower demand

Khairunnisa, a resident of Rawalpindi, had a spine-chilling tale of woe to narrate to the reporters at the Karachi Press Club on Friday evening, detailing the cruelty allegedly perpetrated on her by her husband, Yasser Ali Mari, and brother-in-law, Akhtar Ali Mari.

Her face bore clear marks of physical torture and beatings. Her hair had been cropped by the two brothers. This compared very unfavourably with the photograph of her wedding showing a very pretty Khairunnisa. It was hard to believe that it was the same person.

According to Khairunnisa, she contracted court marriage with Yasser Ali Mari of Sukkur on January 31, 2017. However, she alleged, lately Mari started persuading her to withdraw her haq meher (right of dower) demand of Rs500,000 and get a divorce.

She resisted, and both brothers started subjecting her to beatings and physical torture. She said they even forced her to undergo an abortion when she was four months pregnant.   Khairunnisa said that three days after her marriage, she came over to live in Khedro, Sukkur.

She said that just three months after the marriage, the brothers started inflicting physical torture on her and cajoling her to withdraw her demand for dower. She registered an FIR (19/2017) under sections 345/A and 337/V of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The woman alleged that the SHO of the Khedro police station, Rao Wajid Ali, had taken a bribe from her tormentors and promised to have the matter hushed up.  She accused the police officer of impeding the proceedings of the case. Khairunnisa most fervently appealed to the media to implore the inspector general of police to take urgent notice of the situation and see to it that justice was done to her.