Two months back, this scribe received a distress letter from Rana Ahsan of Rahim Yar Khan. This brought to the fore a gruesome affair of four people of a family murdered in cold blood. Here is the translated and edited version of the letter:
I want to share my predicament with you and need the help of the media through your source. On March 16, 2011, my sister Mussarat Zahid, her husband Zahid Hussain, daughter Aqsa and son Ahmed Bilal were coldheartedly murdered by Aqsa’s ex-husband Rana Fayaz Akhter at their house in a village near Fort Abbass (Bahawalnagar district). Mussarat’s other son Faizan Ahmed was seriously injured and survived only because the culprits ran short of bullets.
Being the complainant, I got FIR No 133/11 registered at Fort Abbass police station, but the murderer has not been arrested yet and I have been facing incredible mental torture and financial burden for pursuing the case that makes me visit courts and police stations every other day to seek justice.
Rana Fayaz has threatened me time and again, saying, “I will kill you and your children also if you pursue this case”. I reported the incident to police and gave them the cell numbers (0324-4319305, 0332-9943152) used by Fayaz. He is using these numbers repeatedly to give me threat calls, but is still at large.
I personally visited the Bahawalnagar DPO and RPO several times, but they always send me back with simple words of sympathy and consolation. I wrote an application to the Lahore High Court chief justice, who directed the Bahawalpur DPO to ensure the arrest of the culprit in 10 days, but the latter did not comply with the judge’s orders. I solemnly appeal you to help me in my quest for justice.
Rana Ahsaan-ul-Haq
Kot Lachhman Singh,
Rahim Yar Khan district
A brief background of the case is that Fort Abbass’s resident Rana Fayaz Akhter, the murderer, got married to Aqsa Kanwal, daughter of Mohammad Zahid, on April 30, 2008.
Right after the wedding eve, Fayaz started expressing his displeasure over this union and demonstrated a hostile attitude towards his in-laws. He blatantly forbade all family members of his in-laws to come to his house to meet Aqsa on the basis of the fact that they had once turned down his marriage proposal in the past.
Eventually, when one day Aqsa’s brother Ahmed Bilal went to see his sister at Fayaz’s house, the latter scolded him and refused to let him inside his house.
He treated the other brother, Faizan Ahmed, in a similar manner when he went to meet his sister after a few days.
Aqsa’s parents – Mohammad Zahid and Mussarrat Zahid – decided to visit their daughter’s in-laws to have the matter settled with the family elders’ involvement.
But Fayaz forced them to return back from his house in the same humiliating manner. Aqsa suffered immensely for more than 18 months and she was not even allowed to use a phone. Then Fayaz suddenly shifted to Khanewal after selling all his properties in Fort Abbass. There again, the girl underwent severe mental and physical torture at the hands of her husband for nearly two years. Her parents had no clue about their daughter’s whereabouts despite making many requests to Fayaz’s sisters and brother-in-laws, living in Fort Abbass, to disclose Fayaz’s new address.
Finally on December 26, 2010, Fayaz went out and forgot to lock the house from the outside, contrary to his routine.
Aqsa availed this opportunity and rushed to her neighbours and contacted her father on the phone, telling him the story of her sufferings.
Fearing Fayaz, the neighbours refused to provide shelter to the girl and sent her back to her husband to be a victim of severe beatings.
Aqsa’s father somehow, managed to meet his daughter with the involvement of Fayaz’s two brothers-in-law Farooq and Aftab, and took her with him on December 28, 2010. After reaching home, Aqsa told her parents that Fayaz had already divorced her one and a half years back in the presence of his mother, three sisters and brothers-in-law. Despite taking that step, he kept on detaining her in his house, setting aside all legal, moral and religious norms.
A few days later, Fayaz started pressuring Aqsa’s parents to send her back, but her parents refused and told him that he had lost all such rights after the divorce. On March 16 2011, Fayaz and his two friends stormed into Zahid Hussain’s house and opened fire at the family, killing Aqsa, her parents and a brother, and took away his two-year-old daughter. Aqsa’s brother Faizan Ahmed, the lone survivor in the family, was critically injured, but saved by the doctors.
This is not the only story of its kind in our society where some slight domestic issues result into bloody acts of savagery and wrongdoers thrive due to the insincerity of corrupt and avaricious security and administrative officials towards the public.
Justice awaited with sinking hopes
