Triple talaq, halala victims meet minority panel chief

LUCKNOW: Around half a dozen victims of ‘nikah-halala’ ( a kind of temporary contractual marriage) and triple ‘talaq’ (divorce) met UP Minorities Commission chairman here on Wednesday to demand justice and action in their case.

“These women had come from Bareilly and Moradabad to narrate their problems and woes to me. I have directed the district magistrates and SSPs of both the cities to take immediate action against the culprits and confiscate their properties if they evade arrest,” said minorities panel chief Tanveer Haider Usmani, addressing the media after the meeting.

“A woman from Moradabad told me she was divorced by her husband and then forced to marry her father in-law through ‘nikah-halala.’ Later, she was divorced when she became pregnant,” said Usmani. The minorities panel chief said that the authorities had been told to register a case of rape against the accused and take immediate action against them.

“Why are the clerics of Bareilly and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, who claim to represent and speak on behalf of the entire Muslim community, silent on the issue?” he asked.

Another victim from Bareilly said she was thrown out of her house by her husband when she gave birth to a male child because her husband suspected that the son belonged to his father. The man's father performed nikah-halala with the woman after instant triple talaq.

The victims were escorted by Farhat Nqavi, sister of Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Farhat Naqvi runs an NGO 'Mera Haq Foundation,' which takes up such cases and plans to move an application into the ongoing nikah-halala case in Supreme Court.

Usmani, who had sent a twomember panel to Bareilly to probe the case of instant triple talaq victim Nida Khan, said he would submit his report along with recommendations about action to be taken in such matters to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath soon.