• Incident reminds of normalisation of GBV in Pakistan: HRCP.
• Urges Sindh govt to ensure victim receives best possible care.
• It demands perpetrators of this crime to be held accountable. 

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it strongly condemns the horrific assault on a woman who was subjected to physical torture by her family for initiating court proceedings against her husband in Sindh’s Nausharoferoz district.

The incident took place on Friday when the victim named Sobia Batool Shah was attacked by her father and uncles with axes in the name of patriarchal “honour” for filing for divorce to end an abusive marriage. 

Expressing concern on the incident, the human rights organisation on X wrote that this case should serve as a reminder that gender-based violence has long been normalised in patriarchal societies such as Pakistan’s.

“Given that Batool is in critical condition, we urge the Sindh government to ensure that she receives the best possible care. The perpetrators of this crime must be held to account,” demanded the HRCP.

The physical torture left the victim in severe physical as well as mental trauma, which may result in a lifelong handicap — with the possibility that she may never be able to walk again.

Reportedly, Syed Mustafa Shah, Sobia’s father, and her uncles Syed Qurban Shah, Ehsan Shah, Shah Nawaz, and Mushtaq Shah, who were armed with axes, injured Sobia, and fled the spot leaving her screaming for help in a pool of blood.

Sobia had told the police that her husband never took responsibility for his family and would regularly abuse her and failed to provide for her and their two children, leaving her to suffer on her own in Karachi.

She repeatedly alerted her parents about the plight she was in, but her family turned a deaf ear to her grievances and dismissed her, calling her a disgrace.

The police had arrested one suspect, Mushtaq Shah, and are conducting further raids in search of the remaining culprits.