Lahore: A woman, who was believed to have been murdered by her husband eight years ago, was arrested after she surfaced this week with her second husband and six children in Pakistan's Punjab province.
The woman, 30-year-old Asma Bibi, reappeared at her village Phalayan in Jhelum district, 250 kms from Lahore this week under a new name of Neelam.
A family member of her first husband filed a complaint against her after which police arrested her.
A Jhelum Police spokesman said Asma in 2009 had been married to Ibrar Ahmed. In 2010, she went missing and her mother had told police that her daughter had been murdered by Ibrar.
Police registered a murder case against him under section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code and arrested him. He said the complainant later withdrew her complaint against Ibrar "after getting compensation money".
The police official said Asma had eloped with Nazeer Ahmed of her native village whom she had relations before marriage. She had a second marriage with Ahmed and left for Dubai where he worked. During the last eight years she gave birth to six children in Dubai, police said, adding the couple and their children have returned to Pakistan after Ahmed ended up jobless there.
"We filed a case against Asma and her second husband under sections 494 and 420 of Pakistan Penal Code for contracting a second marriage without divorce from the first husband," the police official said.
Asma told police that her family had married her off to Ibrar against her will. "I loved Ahmed. As Ahmed got a job in Dubai we planned to settle there," she said adding that she had no regrets eloping with her second husband.
Saturday, Jhelum civil judge Sobia Khatoon accepted the bail application of Asma and ordered her to submit two surety bonds worth Rs 50,000 each.
