Girl’s nose, lips cut off for seeking divorce | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Girl’s nose, lips cut off for seeking divorce

MULTAN, September 23 2005: A man cut off the nose and lips of his 19-year-old sister-in-law after she went to court for a divorce in a tribal area of the Punjab, police said on Thursday September 22.

Muhammad Hasan Abbas first shot at Amna Abbas and her brother, causing them to fall off a bicycle, as they headed home from a court in Dera Ghazi Khan, a town 125 km southwest of Multan, police said.

Abbas then attacked the girl, hacking off her nose and slicing off her lips.

“He fled after the incident and we are searching for him. The girl has been admitted to hospital,” police sub inspector Muhammad Shafiq said.

A doctor treating the girl said her nose had been cut off from the bridge and her lips partially severed.

“She says her brother-in-law had told her he would not leave her fit for any other man, while committing the savage, inhuman act,” Dr Farhat Hussain said.

Country’s attitudes to violence against women have come under an international spotlight since the Washington Post quoted President Pervez Musharraf as saying this month that many of his compatriots believed that crying rape was a fast way to make money and get a visa for Canada. Musharraf says he is a strong advocate of women’s rights and maintains he was misquoted.

He says Pakistan is not alone in suffering from the scourge of violence against women, though the problem was particularly prevalent among the country’s rural, tribal communities.

Hundreds of women are killed by male relatives every year after being accused of bringing shame on their families by having affairs with other men. Numerous cases have also been reported of women being disfigured as punishment for offending a man’s honour.

Shaista Bukhari, coordinator of a women’s rights group in Multan, said until courts handed down death sentences for such crimes, violence against women would continue.

“Such crimes are common in tribal society where male honour is offended on the slightest pretext,” Shaista said, commenting on the attack on Amna Abbas.

Sub-Inspector Shafiq said the girl’s attacker, once caught, would be tried in an anti-terrorism court.
Source: The News
Date:9/23/2005