PAKISTANI WIFE ACCUSES VALLEY HUSBAND OF DOMESTIC ABUSE

SRINAGAR : A Pakistani woman married to a Kashmir University official has accused her husband of domestic violence, days after he charged her with breaching “national security” on Twitter.

Karachi-based Mehnaz Siddiqui has accused her husband Danish Shervani, a liaison officer at the KU, of physically assaulting her through their nine-year marriage and forcing her to raise their children all by herself.

Siddiqui, who is working as a teacher in the Valley, said they haven’t officially divorced, adding that she has filed a case of domestic violence against Shervani and approached the court seeking maintenance from him.

The two are parents to an eight-year-old boy and a six-yearold girl. Siddiqui’s charges come against the backdrop of her husband tweeting to home minister Rajnath Singh and external affairs minter Sushma Swaraj on June 7 about a possible security breach. He later said that his “ex-wife got her visa extended” even though he, her sponsor, had opposed it. Shervani said that Siddiqui “is a Pakistani national and in touch with separatists”.

Siddiqui, however, rejected Shervani’s charges, stating: “He wants me to return to Pakistan and is levelling false accusations. But I don’t want to go, I can’t go. My children are Indian nationals, Pakistan won’t keep them. How can a mother live without her children?” The couple first met on Orkut in 2008 after which they started interacting regularly. In 2009, Shervani visited Pakistan and asked Siddiqui to marry him, she said. Siddiqui, however, maintained that Shervnai’s family never accepted her and she was subjected to domestic abuse. She added that the physical abuse also led to a miscarriage.