Girls tonsured for "cross-community" love

Zulfia (18) was in love with Irfan alias Munna Momin (24) and they often met secretly fearing her conservative parents’ wrath. Yesterday, the sisters were on their way to Padgha from Khadavli railway station when they saw Munna walking by near Khadavli bridge. Zulfia asked the driver to drop them there. As the lovers sat on the wall of the bridge chatting, Chubnoor (21)kept a watchful eye on people passing by. She, however, failed to notice Abdul Kazi, a rickshaw driver and resident of Raya as he sped by. As soon as Kazi reached the village he spread the word around that Zulfia was “seeing a Hindu boy.”

That did it. All the males in the village gathered in front of the Ungles’ house and asked them to “do something so that no other girl in the village would dare to befriend a boy from the other community.”

When Zulfia and Chubnoor returned in the evening, the village was unusually silent. They could sense something was wrong. The girls were followed into their house by their cousins Ujjam Ungle (18), Salaman Ungle (20) and two others – Faiyaz Kayyum and Parjit. Without warning the boys pounced upon Zuflia and started beating and abusing her. When Chubnoor asked her parents to stop the boys, her father walked away and her mother began weeping.

The youth then dragged the girls out and shaved their heads in the village square as hundreds of men, women and childrenwatched. Eye-witnesses said the girls were struggling to break free and in the process suffered cuts.

And their ordeal did not end at that. They were then paraded in the village.

Later in the day Zulfia approached the Titwala police and lodged a complaint. The police got in touch with Munna, who corroborated her version of the afternoon’s meeting.

When this reporter visited the village people were still huddled in groups discussing the incident. Nobody, however had any remorse for what had happened. At the Ungle household, Zulfia’s father Richwan Zahir squarely placed the blame on the girl. “Isn’t the disrepute our daughter has heaped on us enough that you want to add to it,” he said and slammed the door.

An elderly man in the village mosque who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity said, “The boys did nothing wrong in correcting their sister from straying.” Surprisingly two elderly women who sat close watching their grandchildren play shook their heads in agreement.