Hyderabad’s Arab Quarter Salalah was jolted as Ahmed Bin Salam Ba Ismail, suspected of murdering his wife Fatima Al Saadi misused the bail granted to him and murdered two of his own sisters and injured another sister and her husband in what is seen as a property dispute. He had invited his sisters Razia (35) and Zakira (45) to his residence in Salalah and made the darkest evening of his life by thrusting daggers into the unsuspecting sisters. Both the sisters could not digest the dinner by dagger! Razia passed away on the spot while Zakira breathed her last on way to the hospital.
Ahmed Bin Salam continued his dance of death as he proceeded to Nabeel Colony, which is about a kilometer away from Salalah. With blood on his mind and hands, he attacked another sister Noora (30). He had no mercy for her husband Omer Ba Hasan (36) who tried to intervene. Both the wife and husband are undergoing treatment in a hospital, according to Syed Rafeeq Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Zone).
Ahmed, who is absconding, went from Nabeel Colony, went to a hospital where another sister was admitted for an illness. On seeing police at the hospital, the triple murderer changed his mind and decided to flee from the place. Senior police officials have visited the scenes of offences, which fall under the Hyderabad Commissionerate and the adjoining Rachakonda Commissionerate. Efforts are on to nab the brother.
It is not out of place to mention that Ahmed Bin Salam was arrested in January 2019 on charges of murdering his wife Fatima Al Saadi. He was granted bail by the court one year ago. In the first instance, why was the bail not opposed by the concerned parties? Was the suspect sent for a mental appraisal to know about his mental health? He has turned out to be a psychic and mentally depraved case. In the future, bail applications must make submission of mental health certificates mandatory and there should be a periodic review about the same.
Hyderabad City Police and Rachakonda Police are very hard-pressed in fighting Covid-19. They have been frontline warriors like doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. Police cannot read the minds of the murderers and reach the spot to thwart murders. Some of the policemen themselves have been infected with Covid-19. Many of them have defeated the dreaded pandemic and returned to duty. They deserve our salutes and accolades.
About two weeks ago, Hyderabad witnessed not less than 7 murders in two successive days. The criminals and murderers are taking advantage of the police being busy fighting the Covid-19 day and night. Is our society mentally sick? After Covid-19 subsides, the Telangana State Government must pay attention and get a mental health survey done in Telangana and the Central Government should do the same at the national level.
Our patriarchal and misogynist society is reflected in the murders of women. When people are stuck with a boy preference over a girl and when girls are fed after the boys, the results are there for all to see. Why are the girls not given their due shares in parental property? How many more women will be killed by husbands, parents and brothers? Why do men hold ‘honour’ on their sleeves and not become honourable themselves?
Sisters will be wary of any dinner invitations from brothers though all brothers are not killers. Should they wear bullet-proof and knife-proof jackets before they enter their brothers’ houses? There is a terrible disintegration of the family unit. The family values, which we were once so proud of, seem to be songs of the distant past.
The sister-brother bond is challenged and tested like never before. Our rich Indian culture has defined the sister-brother bond with a pledge to protect her life and honour all the time. A couple of months from now we celebrate the Raksha Bandhan Day. Ritualistic tying of rakhi by sisters to brothers is no use if sisters are murdered for property or honour. It is time we understand the significance of the sister-brother bond like Moghul Emperor Humayun, who took an army to answer Queen Karnavati of Gujarat’s call for help against an enemy. He valued the sentiments of brother-sister bond through Rakhi sent by Queen Karnavati, who was not his own sister.
Sisters’ love for brothers cannot be described in words, they are beyond the full stop.
