KASUR: A woman recovered by Khudian police over a week ago from Dhing Shah village from the house of her in-laws, who had allegedly kept her in illegal confinement and tortured her, succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday, while neither her parents nor the in-laws received her body that was finally handed over to the village elders for burial.

As per the first information report (FIR), victim Sajida (her Muslim name), was a Christian and had contracted love marriage with a Muslim man, Aslam, some eight years ago after converting to Islam.

Later, her husband and in-laws started mistreating her and locked her in a room where she was subjected to torture. It was alleged that her husband had thrown boiling water on her to kill her.

On Aug 31, the police had recovered her from a room of her in-laws house in a critical condition with torture marks and burns, allegedly inflicted by her husband and his two brothers.

After being recovered by police, she was shifted to the Kasur District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, where doctors referred her to a hospital in Lahore given her critical condition. She succumbed to her injuries at the hospital on Tuesday.

However, her plight did not end even after her death as neither her parents, nor her in-laws received her dead body when it was sent to Dhing Shah village.

According to local sources, her Christian parents were not ready to perform her burial as she had converted to Islam, while her in-laws were facing police investigations as two members of the family -- victim’s husband Aslam and his brother Asif -- had been arrested while their third brother, Shahid, was wanted by police in the torture and illegal confinement case.

Because of the burial issue, the ambulance carrying the dead body remained parked in the Khudian police station for several hours.

Finally, the police and a non-government organisation intervened and some village elders were handed over the body that was buried in the local Muslim graveyard.

Earlier, the police had registered a case under sections, including 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (use of criminal force to any woman and strip her of her clothes) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

After Sajida’s death on Tuesday, the police added section 302 of the PPC to the FIR.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2021