Woman who lost husband to vengeance cries for justice
By Mohammad Hussain Khan
HYDERABAD: Ms Sumera fought her tears and her face contorted as she gathered courage to relate her ordeal but she broke down at last when she described how her husband was separated from her in the middle of the night and murdered in cold blood.
She accused her former husband Zaheer Khan of killing him in Lahore a few days ago to avenge her second marriage. “I don’t know what future holds for me,” she said dismally.
Ms Sumera, 22, completely broke down as she related her six months ordeal. She is five months pregnant and is under treatment at Liaquat University Hospital where Lunikot police shifted her two days ago after finding her fatally injured near the Super Highway.
Her late husband Nausher Khan belonged to Hassan Zai Kakahel tribe of Ugi, Mansehra and she belongs to Hassan Zai Khan Khel tribe of the same district.
Her ordeal began when she eloped after getting divorce from Zaheer Khan, a resident of Patel Para, Karachi.
According to her account her first nikkah itself took place in disquieting circumstances.
She claimed that Zaheer had subjected her to criminal assault in Karachi two and a half years ago and the incident “forced my parents to solemnise my nikkah with him to cover up the (rape) incident,” she told Dawn in hospital on Saturday.
“One day, he took me and my friend to his driver’s house off Jehangir Road, saying he wanted to talk to her. After my friend, Aisha, left sensing danger he subjected me to criminal assault,” she said.
When she told her mother, parents of the tow families agreed to solemnise their nikkah. “Zaheer’s attitude was overbearing.
“He wanted to put me under severe restrictions. After consulting my mother, I asked him for divorce,” she said.
She said he divorced her one day on phone but soon retracted his statement when his father spoke to him from Saudi Arabia.
“His parents forced us to perform rukhsati while my family remained unwilling,” she said.
Nausher Khan, her maternal cousin, arrived from Dubai in the meantime. He spoke to her father for her hand but did not agree for fear of Zaheer. “Then we left home on Jan 17, 2009,” and married through a lawyer, Rana Rehan, in a court of Lahore, she said.
She accused Zaheer, his cousin Sultan, Zahid Khan and her mother’s uncle Alif Khan of mounting a hunt for them.
They kept changing places and finally crossed the border over to Afghanistan through one of her acquaintances, Mahaz.
Later, they settled in Thokar Niaz Baig, Lahore, in a residential quarter and remained there for last one and a half month.
“On July 6, Zaheer, Sultan and some policemen scaled over our houseÂ’s walls at around 2.30am, separated us and shifted us to unknown destinations,” she said.
On July 7 she was moved to another place where she was told she would meet her husband. But later they brought her to Karachi on July 8 and lodged her somewhere in Al-Asif Square.
“The same day at 6pm Sultan, Alif Khan and two others told me that I would be taken to Hyderabad after they shoved me into a vehicle.
“I was asked to alight. My hands were tied and Zaheer told me that my husband has been murdered in Lahore and now he will kill me,” she said.
They fired at her from close range and left her there for dead but luckily the bullets hit upper region of her chest and she survived.
Lunikot police found her fatally injured near Super Highway and shifted her to Liaquat University Hospital Jamshoro on July 8.
Strict security has been provided to her at one of private wards by Hyderabad DPO Javed Alam Odho.
Thatta DPO Munir Sheikh has met her. Her father has also met her but he is reluctant to take her back home.
“My father confirmed that my husband has been murdered and Zaheer and others have disappeared. I have no contact with my family. I just need a picture of my innocent husband,” she said as she wept uncontrollably.
She gave a Dubai telephone number of Nausher’s elder brother, Sher Afzal Khan who confirmed to this scribe over phone that Nausher had been murdered. He did not say much about how all this happened.
Sumera’s brother Tahir also avoided making any comments. “Look, we are Pathans and we handle things in our own way. We will do whatever is possible. We don’t know where Zaheer is? Please don’t disturb me again,” he said over phone.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/12/2009
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