Kidnapped girl recovered, handed over to father

Report Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: A girl reportedly kidnapped from her house by her husband and his accomplices over two months ago was produced before a local court on Friday and handed over to her father.
The girl Shazia from the Kalash valley of Rumboor was kidnapped by her husband Hafizullah two months ago and was taken to the Afghan area of Nooristan which borders Chitral district.
Telling her tale of woes to the journalists at the Chitral Press Club here, she said that she was wedded to a boy of her village four years ago but her husband and other in-laws made her life a hell and persecuted her.
“I was treated like an animal and made to toil in the fields and given nothing to eat while my meeting with my father, mother and sisters and brother had been completely banned”, she said.
Shazia said that at last her father filed an application with a local court to seek her divorce from her husband and the case was ongoing. She added that in August, her husband broke open her house at midnight with nine armed men and kidnapped her at gunpoint and took her to the Nooristan area on the other side of the border.
She said that she was beaten by her husband and his accomplice Kamaluddin throughout the way. She said that due to the slaps at her cheeks, she lost her hearing power.
She said that in the house where she was confined, she was also roughed up by her husband due to the fear of the members of the host family. She said she was constantly asked by her husband to forget her parents and other family members and warned that if she told the host family members about her abduction, her father would be slaughtered by his men.
Shazia apprehended that her husband would kidnap her again and appealed to the authorities for her safety. Speaking on the occasion, Shah Nawaz, the father of Shazia and Ghulam Hazrat, her counsel said that her return from the clutches of the abductors was made possible with the interference of the court.
They appealed to the government to establish a checkpost of Chitral Scouts in the district to stop such incidents in future as presently the border area was not guarded by a strong force to check such activities.