July 29, 2002	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 18,1423

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RAWALPINDI, July 28: District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani on Sunday directed the senior superintendent of police to register an FIR in a torture case wherein a newly-married woman suffered miscarriage after allegedly being beaten by her husband and mother-in-law.

While visiting the woman at the District Headquarters Hospital, the Nazim also directed the SSP Moravat Shah, who accompanied him, to take the accused into custody under the relevant laws, the victim’s parents and hospital sources said.

Rukhsar Bibi, daughter of Zahid Hussain, a plumber by profession, was married to Raja Kamran on April 17, 2002. Her in- laws were residing in Misryial, Westridge.

The torture victim, in her statement, said her married life had been an ordeal. She said she had been told by her husband to obey his mother, come what may. However, she added that despite obeying her mother-in-law, she had been tortured by her frequently and a few days ago she was not even allowed to eat for two days. She said she was kicked, punched and beaten up with shoes on her head which caused the miscarriage.

After her condition deteriorated, she went to the kitchen and took a piece of loaf and pickle, which, too, annoyed her mother-in-law. “I was locked in a room by my husband, who tortured me after his mother told him that I had eaten,” Rukhsar Bibi said from the hospital bed.

She said: “Last Sunday and the day after, I was beaten by my mother-in-law, who also kicked me in my abdomen.”

The victim said her hue and cry failed to catch the attention of other family members, none of whom came to rescue her. She added that her in-laws had threatened to harm her father and brother, therefore she did not tell her parents that she was being maltreated.

The victim’s father, a resident of Waris Khan Mohalla, said he had been receiving anonymous telephone calls for not involving the police in the case. Responding to his complaint, the district Nazim directed the SSP to provide police guard to the affected family.