July 15, 2020
By Our Reporter
KARACHI/LAHORE
In a press release issued on behalf of Dr. Mehdi Hasan, Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) the death of Waziran Begum has been seriously condemned and a proper and impartial investigation has been demanded. The story was also covered by Voicepk.net.
Following an independent fact-finding mission, representatives of the HRCP expressed that the level of ignorance among women regarding their constitutional rights to life and security was extremely alarming. This including the lack of access to women-centric police and other services, and entrenched practices such as involuntary watta satta or exchange marriages of which 25 year old Waziran was a victim. She was a resident of the village of Wada Chhachar and was apparently two months pregnant at the time of her brutal murder.
Waziran’s badly mutilated body was discovered dumped by the side of the Indus Highway on 28 June 2020. So far, three suspects have been arrested in connection with the crime.
HRCP has stated that it has reason to believe that the act was one of revenge, possibly related to the practice of watta satta in her family. Several village residents were inclined to dismiss the murder as an ‘accident’ or ‘suicide’ which was a disturbing scenario despite a post-mortem report that indicated that the young woman had clearly suffered extensive trauma consistent with an injury with both blunt and sharp objects. It is also a matter of concern that, apparently, the autopsy did not determine whether she had been sexually assaulted.
In the exclusive story by Voicepk.net Waziran’s father, Gul Muhammad Chachar, had said that she had been married to Ali Bakhsh Chachar around five years ago but when he sent a marriage proposal for her brother with Ali Bakhsh’s sister, it was after that they started torturing her regularly.
“They got furious when we sent a marriage proposal for my son with their daughter and started beating up my daughter and I also complained about this to the previous SHO Chachar police station, Ashraf Shahani but instead of filing a report, he took money from the accused and started threatening us,” he had told Voicepk.net.
HRCP has demanded that police and authorities must oversee that a thorough investigation must take place and for the government to take immediate measures to set up women police desks staffed by trained police officers with full knowledge of the law and procedures, particularly from a human rights’ perspective.
