Trouble-in-laws: Police accused of illegal detention, harassment

59-year-old Taj Bibi told The Express Tribune that on August 31, she, along with 30 other residents, had been picked up by Chowk Qureshi police from their houses and kept at the farmhouse of MPA Mian Alamdar Abbas Qureshi of PP-255 Muzzafargh.

She said they were beaten and interrogated about the whereabouts of the MPA’s daughter Hajra Abbas, who had married her nephew Khizar against her family’s wishes on August 6.

She said the couple had left for Sindh after getting married.

She said she was dropped off outside her house on Tuesday.

Earlier on Monday, Razia Bibi, Khizar’s mother, had also been dropped off. She told The Express Tribune that the police had beaten them to extract knowledge of Hajra and Khizar’s whereabouts.

“I told them they had not contacted us for a long time,” Razia Bibi said. “They did not listen to us.”

She demanded the release of 30 other people who were still under detention.

Chowk Qureshi Station House Officer Farook Khan told The Express Tribune that an FIR had been registered against Khizar and eight other people for kidnapping Hajra on August 16 on the MPA’s complaint.

He said no arrests had been made so far.

He said investigations were being conducted on merit and the police were not being pressurised by the MPA.

When The Express Tribune contacted the MPA about the allegations, he refused to comment.

Meanwhile, Hajra filed a petition in the Sindh High Court in Karachi on August 31 asking for protection.

In the first hearing of the petition on September 4, she said she had married Khizar of her own free will. She and her husband had been getting death threats from her father and needed protection. The court has sought replies from the home secretaries of Sindh and Punjab, the Muzzafargarh DPO, the Karachi East SSP and prosecutors general of both provinces by September 13.

The court also ordered protection for the couple.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2013.