The man accused of shaving his daughter’s head and keeping her in confinement has been granted bail by a judicial magistrate in Karachi.
Along with the father, four other members of the family have also been released.
The police investigating team presented the victim’s father Niaz Husain, her relatives including uncle Kaleem Husain and three women—Zubaida, Shakeela, and Kinza Fatima—before the judicial magistrate in a Malir court to ask for a physical remand.
The Investigating Officer officially requested the court to remand the suspects to police custody for two weeks.
However, the judicial magistrate rejected the request, granting bail to the suspects, stating that the sections invoked in the FIR are bailable offences.
The court also ordered the suspects to submit surety bonds of Rs20,000 each, along with personal bonds.
The court order stated, “Since the alleged sections are bailable in nature, the accused are offered bail subject to furnishing surety bonds in the sum of Rs. 20,000 each and PR bonds of an equivalent amount.”
Furthermore, the order said that if the suspects fail to provide the required surety bonds, they will be remanded to jail custody.
The father and the relatives were arrested by the police on charges of detaining the victim and shaving her head as punishment for wanting to marry of her own choice.
Naz Fatima, who works as a nurse at the Ojha campus of the Dow University of Health Sciences, was forcefully confined to her father’s home.
Quaidabad SHO Farasat Shah said that after being informed, a police team raided the house, recovered the victim and arrested four suspects, including the patriarch of the house, Naz Fatima’s father.
The police informed the media that after being recovered, the victim later registered a case against her father Niaz Husain, uncle Kaleem Husain and others under sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 337-V (Arsh for hair), 337-A-I (punishment of shajjah) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Naz stated in the FIR that her parents separated around seven months ago, after which she, along with her three sisters, began living with their mother in a rented house in Qadhafi Town. Her father had been pestering her and her sisters to move in with him in Daud Chali, Quaidabad.
However, on December 12, her father beat her and her sisters, prompting them to temporarily seek refuge at her friend’s house in Green Town.
On December 20, Naz’s father, accompanied by her uncle and other relatives, stormed into her friend’s house in the afternoon, beat her, tore her clothes and shaved her head.
Then, they forcibly took her to his house in Quaidabad, where she was held in confinement until she managed to contact her lawyer.
Naz’s lawyer then reported her ordeal to the police, and she was subsequently recovered from wrongful confinement.
