Two brothers, Javed, age 9 and Jameel, age 13 were taken against their parents’ will from their village, Kotla Rahm Ali Shah, to go work in Multan as servants in the home of Faheem Abbas Shah, the land-owner for whom the family works. The parents of the boys repeatedly asked for the return of their sons. They wanted their boys to study and not work in the city. Faheem denied their request and did not allow the boy to visit their parents for the past several months.
On Thursday afternoon, June 6, Jameel the 13 year old boy, attempted to pour himself juice and broke the glass pitcher in the process. Faheem’s wife, Hina Gilani, was so enraged that he dared to drink her juice AND cracked her pitcher that she physically assaulted him. She slapped and beat him until he was on the ground and then picked up the glass pitcher and smashed it against his head. Jameel began to bleed and weep and retreated to the rooftop where he continued to hemorrhage and suffer in the summer heat-upwards of 120 degrees. The little 9 year old boy, Javed, tended to his brother and came downstairs several times crying and pleading for help.
He told Hina that Jameel was having seizures on the roof. She became irritated by javed’s pleas and beat him also. Javed helplessly returned to his brother, Jameel, and stayed next to him on the hot cement roof through the night. In the morning the little 9 year old boy returned to Hina and told her that Jameel was unresponsive and may have died.
Hina called her husband, Faheem, who was at the village, Kotla Rahm Ali Shah, and told him that Jameel had died. Faheem’s personal assistant, Saeed, age 17, is the older brother of Jameel and Javed. Faheem told Saeed that his brother was sick and had food poisoning and that they needed to go and see him. On the drive to Multan, Faheem informed Saeed that Jameel had died. Once they arrived at the home, Saeed was instructed to clean the house before he could go to the roof to see his brothers.
Saeed and Javed loaded Jameel’s body in Faheem’s car and drove back to the village. By the time they arrived at the village, the surviving 9 year old boy, Javed, was so traumatized and dehydrated that he fainted and was taken to the local hospital and admitted there.
Faheem did not allow the local village imam to wash and view the body, he instructed another person, Maulvi Shafi to wash the body. Maulvi Shafi was astonished by the bruises on the boy’s body and found large, sharp shards of glass in the boy’s skull. He said that the boy should undergo an autopsy and his suggestions were quickly silenced. The haemorrhaging was so severe that they had to pack the head wound with additional gauze minutes before the burial. Faheem kept insisting that the wound was due to a pre-existing head sore and that Jameel’s head kept hitting the window of the car on the drive back to the village. Currently Faheem says that Jameel died of Typhoid.
Hameed the father is facing a lot of pressure from Faheem’s family, particularly the local politician, Syed Jameel Bokhari, a member of PTI who ran for MNA and lost the election. He is continuously calling asking for Hameed to be sent to his home after he found out that people from the HRCP were at Hameed’s home.
Latest Update:
The Multan police after the intervention from the higher authorities and pressure from the civil society rounded Hina Gilani’s brother on 27th June 2013 in the evening, whereas, Faheem and his wife Hina are hiding in Multan. Apparently they have been tipped off by the Comissioner Multan who happens to be married to Faheem’s cousin sister. Another police official Gulzar the DCO Multan is also related to a close relative of Hina Gilani. The father of the dead Jameel is under police protection but there is a fear that under the pressure of the local landlords the police may pressurize him to withdraw. The FIR has been registered and autopsy of the dead body of Jameel will be conducted tomorrow, 2nd July 2013.
Hina Gilani and Faheem Shah have been granted bail before arrest by the court. The civil society and media in Multan is successful to an extent and are exerting pressure on police but the murderer party is too strong and powerful. The activists are threatened of dire consequences by the feudal family and they are pressurizing Jameel’s family through various ways to “settle” for the “mistake” committed and on top of it, they are ready to pay for the blood money under Qisas and diyat law! They have also brought in the pir of Jameel’s father in the picture to forgive the lords who have “fed and raised” the great grand fathers of Hameed. After all they are benefactors of his family and a “little mistake” should be pardoned by him!
The case of Jameel’s murder is a tip of ice berg in a feudal society of Pakistan and there are hundreds of such heinous crimes committed against the landless poor families living in abject poverty and bondage of the feudal. Even if any case is brought to the notice of public and police the blood money (Qisas and Diyat law) is available to these rich people as a license to kill.
It is high time that we demand forcefully for the repeal of Qisas and
diyat law and land reforms in Pakistan.
Issued by: Mohammad Tahseen, Executive Director
South Asia Partnership Pakistan
Haseeb Memorial Trust Building,
2k.m., Raiwind Road, P.O. Thokar
Niaz Baig, Lahore – Pakistan.
Ph: +92 42 35311701-6
Fax: +92 42 35311710
Email: tahseen@sappk.org
Website: www.sappk.org
