‘Heartless man’ expels raped wife from their house

Declares her a ‘kari’ and snatches her children from her

Photo: Voicepk

IN a horrifying incident that depicts how Pakistani women face injustices both inside their homes and outside it, a polio worker who was raped in a village in Jacobabad district was driven out of her house by her husband. Not only that, the man declared his wife as a ‘kari’ and snatched her children from her.

In a statement recorded before a judge, the woman confirmed that she had been raped, said ‘Dawn’ newspaper’s report on the harrowing incident. However, her lawyers — Nisar Ahmad Mugheri and Zahid Ali Soomro — submitted a petition to the district and sessions court for the recovery of her children and they were ultimately reunited on the orders of the court.

After reuniting with her children, the woman told journalists the suspected rapist abducted her on gunpoint when she was returning after administering polio drops to children. She said she was taken to a nearby forested area, where three men were already waiting for them.

One of the accomplices filmed her while the suspect sexually assaulted her, she said. The suspect also subjected her to torture and she was bearing its marks on her body, she said.

“After the assault, he let me go. I came back to the village but no villager provided me refuge,” she remarked. She said she could only identify the main suspect, who is now in police custody, but she could not identify his accomplices as their faces were completely covered.

She said that after the incident, her husband drove her out of his house and snatched her three innocent daughters from her, who were later reunited with her. “We are a very low-income family. I work as a polio worker and my husband earns his livelihood as a transporter of small goods through his hand-cart,” she said.

She appealed to the chairman of Pakistan People’s Party to help her and provide her justice as her life had been ruined by the assault on her.

Meanwhile, the Mauladad police produced the suspect in the court of the second additional sessions judge and judicial magistrate, Nisar Ahmed Shar, who remanded him in police custody for seven days. The judge ordered police to take samples of the suspect and submit the medical report to the court whenever it was ready.  

An analyst pointed that the victim, by administering polio drops to children, was actually providing a great service to society. “But as a society we really don’t value our women. She is a woman and now that she has been ‘soiled’ by another man, her husband has abandoned her. How tragic is that?”