PESHAWAR: HR lawyer to move PHC against Islamabad police: Shifting of woman from Darul Aman
By Waseem Ahmad Shah
PESHAWAR, May 14: A human rights advocate will move the Peshawar High Court against the illegal shifting of a woman by the Islamabad police to the federal capital where she suffered severe injuries in an honour-related attempt on her life.
Advocate Usman Khan Tarlandi, known for filing cases on behalf of destitute people, including women, told reporters on Sunday that the shifting of the woman, Robeena Zaheen, from Peshawar to Islamabad by a team of the Bhara Kahu police station amounted to abduction.
The woman has been admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences after her cousin opened fire at her injuring her and two other women, including a cop.
Robeena had contracted marriage with her free will last month. An FIR was registered by her father Zaheen Ahmad on April 10 at Bhara Kahu police station under the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979. He charged Ghulam Ali, now husband of Robeena, of abducting his daughter from Islamabad. Mr Ali has been imprisoned in Adiala jail.
Mr Tarlandi said that he would file a writ petition with the high court as the life of the woman was in danger in Islamabad. She had clearly told a court in Peshawar that her life was in danger and she should be kept in Peshawar, he added.
“When the Islamabad police can not provide her security then why they took her away,” he said. Along with Islamabad police, the local police and officials of the Darul Aman were also responsible for the plight of the woman as they remained silent over her illegal removal from the provincial metropolis.
He said that in the petition, to be filed on Monday, the provincial police officer of NWFP, officials of Bharah Kahu police station, NWFP home department and local police would be made respondents. He added that the high court would be requested to set the woman free as she was not required in any case and to order registration of an FIR against the Islamabad police.
The local police had already registered an initial report against some officials of the Islamabad police for forcibly taking away the woman on Friday last.
An official of the Hasthnagri police station here told Dawn that the report had been registered in the daily Diary and an inquiry was in progress under section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
“If the inquiry proves that the woman was illegally shifted to Islamabad then a proper FIR would be registered against the raiding team,” the official said.
The initial report had been registered against Bhara Kahu police station sub inspector Ashraf Ali and eight other members of the raiding party which visited Peshawar and took away the woman from the Apwa shelter house.
Under the rules, the police officer said, the officials of Islamabad police had to inform the local police before taking away any person from here. Apparently, they had violated the set procedure, he added.
An official of the Darul Aman said that the police officials from Islamabad visited the shelter house and showed some documents to them stating that the woman was wanted in a criminal case. “We had no other option but to let them take her away who was constantly crying and stating that she will be killed,” the official said.
It was learnt that Robeena Zaheen suffered serious injuries when her relatives opened fire at her in the Federal Government Services Hospital where she was taken for medico-legal opinion.
One of the attackers, Raja Mutafariq Nadeem, said to be her cousin, was arrested from the spot and he told officials of the Abpara police station that the woman had brought a bad name to the family therefore they tried to kill her.
The young woman had reportedly fallen in love with Ghulam Ali of Peshawar, who was serving in Dubai and had met her in Islamabad. She eloped with him last month.
The couple, staying here at the residence of an uncle of Ghulam Ali, was tracked down by the local police and produced before the court of judicial magistrate, Ziaur Rehman. The magistrate ordered that Robeena should be kept at local Darul Aman. The woman had told the court that she was never abducted and in fact she married Ghulam Ali with her free will. She feared she would be killed by her relatives if shifted to Islamabad.
