MULTAN, Aug 17: The defence in Meerwala case sought re-examination of Mukhtaran Mai, the gang-rape victim, and Maulvi Razzaq besides summoning Dera range crime SP Mirza Abbas to appear as defence witness.
The Dera Ghazi Khan anti-terrorism court summoned the SP for Monday while decision on the re-examination of Mukhtaran Mai and Razzaq was kept pending.
Earlier, defence witness (DW5) Ghulam Husain Mastoi told the court during the in-camera trial on Saturday that the Mastois were Baloch of ‘low status’ as they did not kill their women caught red-handed with their paramours. Hussain is the maternal uncle of accused Abdul Khaliq.
The defence in the Meerwala case presented Ghulam Husain as a witness of the alleged ‘nikah’ of Mukhtaran Mai, the gang-rape victim, with accused Abdul Khaliq.
Recording his statement, the DW5 claimed that on June 22 last, at mid-night, his nephew Abdul Khaliq came to him in Rampur village and said that he had caught red-handed his sister Salma and Abdul Shakoor Tatla while they were committing ‘zina’ in a sugar cane field.
He said Khaliq further informed him that Abdul Shakoor had been taken by Jatoi police while Maulvi Abdul Razzaq and others were pressing for a settlement on the basis of exchange marriages. The proposal was to give hand of Shakoor’s sister Mukhtaran Mai to Abdul Khaliq and of Salma to Shakoor.
The DW5 said Khaliq told him that he had insisted on solemnizing his nikah with Mukhtaran Mai instantly and that Maulvi Razzaq and others had agreed to do so. He said Khaliq wanted him to become a witness of his nikah.
He said when he reached at Khaliq’s house, Mukhtaran Mai and others were present there. He said Maulvi Razzaq performed the nikah of Khaliq with Mukhtaran in his (DW5) and Fayyaz Husain’s presence. He said thereafter the Tatlas demanded that now Shakoor be brought back from the police station. He said Maulvi Razzaq asked him to come back again on the morning on June 23 when nikah of Shakoor would be performed with Salma.
Ghulam Husain said the next morning (when he returned to Meerwala) he found Gujjars and Maulvi Razzaq involved in hot talks with Abdul Khaliq. He said the Gujjars were demanding hand of another girl from the Mastois on account of the sodomy committed to Shakoor while Khaliq was arguing that he would not marry his sister Salma to Shakoor because the Gujjars had accused his brother Punnu of sodomy.
The DW5 claimed that at this Maulvi Razzaq threatened with taking legal action against the Mastois besides denouncing the nikah of Khaliq and Mukhtaran. While on June 27 last the nikah of Salma was solemnized with Khaleel in a simple ceremony. It may be added here that Khaleel is among the eight arrested accused in the Meerwala case who are accused of being the part of strong Mastoi assembly that enforced the panchayat verdict of “a rape for a rape”.
During the cross-examination by the prosecution lawyers Ramzan Khalid Joiya and Iftikhar Arif, the DW5 admitted that the sodomy accused Jamil was his son. He said Maulvi Razzaq had threatened him with dire consequences if he (DW5) deposed against the complainants in the Meerwala case.
He said however no report was lodged with the police regarding the threats hurled by Razzaq. He agreed that usually the bridegroom went to the bride’s house on the marriage day. Here he volunteered that since Shakoor was confined at the Jatoi police station ‘facing’ a Hudood case, therefore, Mukhtaran Mai was taken to Khaliq’s house under duress. He admitted that no case was registered against Shakoor because of the compromise.
Here the prosecution lawyers urged the court to refrain the defence counsel, Malik Saleem, from interfering in the cross-examination time and again.
To a prosecution query, he said Mastois were ‘shodhey’ (Mean) Baloch who were not like Khosas, Shakranis and Jandanis who killed their daughters and their paramours on seeing them in an objectionable condition. Cross-examination of the DW5 had yet to be completed when the prosecution requested the court to adjourn the proceedings. The court will resume the trial on Monday.
Earlier, Jatoi police station incharge inspector Abdul Lateef Chandia informed the court about police his failure to serve warrants on Fayyaz Husain, who had been named by the defence as the other witness of the Khaliq-Mukhtaran nikah.
He further told the court that summons could not be served on Mureed Abbas, correspondent of a local Urdu daily based at Jatoi, because he had left for Murree. The court again issued the warrants of both Fayyaz and Mureed for Aug 19.