Emmi is a 30-year-old Hindu woman and a resident of Thatta city in Pakistan. She is being helped by a non-governmental body to seek justice for the trauma that she has gone through over several years. Emmi’s case highlights how hard it is for marginalized people to attain justice.
During a press conference in Karachi, Emmi revealed that in 2008, she had befriended a man, Shahbaz (from Mirpur Sakro), over the phone, who kidnapped her when she went to meet him.
Emmi said she was taken by Shahbaz and another man, Ramzan, to “an unknown place where I was confined to a dark room for 20 days, beaten and raped.” Emmi was later sold to a man named Javed Khaskheli in Nawabshah, who had her sign papers to fake a marriage between them.
She was then forced to sign papers converting her to Islam and Javed forced her into prostitution. She attempted to escape twice and was punished.
Emmi was burnt and admitted first to a hospital in Nawabshah and then to the Combined Military Hospital in Hyderabad (the 2nd largest city in Pakistan’s Sindh province). She had to identify herself as Javed’s wife in the hospitals and was also poisoned by his ‘tormentors’.
In the six years Emmi spent in confinement in Hyderabad, she met three girls who were brought in for prostitution. Emmi escaped on the second day of Eid.
When Emmi reached her home in Thatta, she was shocked to find that her father, her only close relative, had died after her kidnapping. A friend of hers advised her to seek help from ‘Madadgaar’; the organization prepared her case and also contacted relevant police officials.
Thatta and Mirpur Sakro police stations refused to register Emmi’s case. They then contacted Minister for Culture, Sharmila Farooqi but got no help from her either.
Advocate Zia Awan, from Madadgaar, revealed that after all other routes failed, they decided to hold a press conference and highlight the case in the media. “State inaction and justice denial is also a kind of terrorism. We want this case to be seriously investigated and culprits punished,” Awan said.
Emmi added that not only did the police refuse to help her but they also laughed at her and sexually harassed her. “I have been exploited for eight years and demand justice,” she said with tears running down her face.
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