Starved, tortured and with their heads shaven, two sisters, aged nine and 11, bearing torture for days sat shaking in Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre after their rescue by Malir police from the clutches of heartless stepparents, who according to the girls, wanted to harm them.

The neighbouring women had garnered the courage to raid the house from where the screams of children were coming for days in the densely populated Aso Goth. They were shocked to see the condition of the children and fought off their stepmother, took hold of the girls and rushed to the police station.

Malir City police station officials after recording the statement of the children sent them to JPMC for medical care and legal formalities. Police have registered a case on behalf of the state on the statements of area residents and the two sisters.

The real mother of the girls had divorced their father and remarried. Their biological father also entered into a second marriage. Their stepmother regularly tortured them, however, their father and brother remained indifferent, the victims told the police.

Malir City police station SHO Malik Aamir told The Express Tribune that the police have registered the case under the sections of attempted murder and the Sindh Child Protection Act 2011 on the complaint lodged by Sub-Inspector Nadeem Riaz,.

According to the FIR, residents of Aso Goth, Shaban Town in Malir City, brought two girls, identified as 11-year-old Kainat and nine-year-old Bisma, to the police station. They reported that the girls had been enduring beatings and torture at the hands of their stepmother for the past 20 days.

The commotion from Mumtaz's house, where the stepmother resides, drew attention from the neighbourhood. Concerned women from the vicinity visited the house multiple times upon hearing the girls' screams. However, Mumtaz and his wife, Gul Fareen, responded harshly and failed to provide any justification for the mistreatment of the girls.

Earlier Tuesday, a group of individuals went to their house after hearing the girls' cries. However, Mumtaz and his elder son Waseem fled the scene. The girls informed the group that their parents had been attempting to harm them for the past 20 days.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2023.