HYDERABAD, July 23: It was her brother’s anger over her second marriage that she today finds herself in a forlorn state so much so that she is compelled to sell her two minor children in public. She got frustrated after her brothers made her life miserable and she was unable to take care of her children as her husband is in Sukkur jail.

Aisha Malik has been in the news for the last few days after she offered her children for sale.

The only consolation which she has received came from a human rights organisation. She has now been taken to Karachi where her basic needs would be taken care of in a shelter home till her husband’s release on bail.

The trust would provide free legal aid in her husband’s case.

A completely shattered Aisha Malik is facing the brunt of her brothers’ ire for taking divorce from her first husband who is four times older than her in age and for marrying a man, a resident of Rahim Yar Khan, of her own free will.

She had once tried to commit suicide by jumping into a canal but was saved by a woman, who brought her to the press club to bring her case in media. But she didn’t get any response.

It was last Monday when she appeared in the city’s famous Resham Bazar with a paper in hand, inscribed with wording: “Children for sale”.

A private TV channel showed her footage. She also spoke to another TV channel to give vent to her feeling.

Aisha belongs to Budh community of Ghotki district and was married to 55-year-old Haneef when she was 12 years old. Haneef fathered five children with her. She then came across Zahid Malik, who used to visit Ghotki and she decided to marry him which she did around two years ago.

She obtained divorce from her first husband and married to Malik, later, she gave birth to a boy, Junaid, who is one-and-a-half-year-old now.

On Tuesday media personnel facilitated her meeting with Syed Sarim Burney of Ansari Burney Welfare Trust, who promised fulfillment of her basic needs and free legal assistance to get her husband, Zahid Malik, freed.

He is facing three cases, one of a robbery and two of theft which were lodged with Ghotki police station.

Constantly weeping, she poured her heart out before journalists and cameramen at Hyderabad Press Club from where she was taken to Karachi by Burney.

“These are not toys that a mother would sell them. There must be something behind it which brought me to this stage in life,” she said while wiping tears off her cheeks.

She says she just needs justice for her husband and nothing else.“Why didn’t the society react when my kids were crying out of hunger and I had no place to take shelter,” she curtly replied when a journalist suggested it was unkindly on her part that she offered her kids for sale.

“No one took notice of the fact that a mother is sleeping on the premises of a shrine for more than a month,” a sobbing Aisha said.

Her husband was arrested from Ghumanabad where they were living in a rented house. Then she left for her in-laws home in Punjab but her brothers threatened them also. She still gets threats of her murder on the charges of karo-kari.

“Yes my brothers are still issuing threats to me because they are not happy with my second marriage. They want me to get divorce from Malik whose only crime is that he married me otherwise cases are false,” she said.

She said her brothers, Ghulam Mohammad, Ghulam Nabi, and Ghulam Mustafa were living at Mirpur Mathelo in Ghotki district.

Sarim Burney told Dawn that her meeting would be ensured with her husband in the first instance.

He said the bail applications in all three cases of Ghotki police station would be filed by the trust which would also ensure lodging and boarding facilities to her until her husband is released.