<i>Agonising tale of a husband's brutality</i>

Mahbuba Khanam

It was love that parted schoolteacher Mahbuba Khanam from her parents. With high hopes disregarding her parents' opinions she got married to a man six years ago, and they had a happy conjugal life until recently.
Now she lies on a hospital bed in the Burn Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with third degree burns on a quarter of her body, inflicted by the very man she had tied the knot with so lovingly.
"Mahbuba will have to undergo treatment here for a long time," according to Project Director of the Burn Unit of DMCH Dr Samata Sen.
Lying on the hospital bed, Mahbuba told The Daily Star that her husband doused her with petrol and set fire to her as she tried to stop him from having an extra marital affair with another woman.
She said five months ago Anwar, her husband, resigned from the army where he used to work as a non-commissioned soldier, and settled at Borhanuddin in Bhola. The couple managed to set up a phone-fax centre which doubles as a stationeries shop, named after their four-year old son Fahmdi, at the local bus stand. They had to sell off Mahbuba's jewelries to gather the required capital.
Over the last few months Mahbuba had been noticing a change in Anwar. After her own investigation, she found that her husband had been in an extra marital affair with another woman living in Jessore, Mahbuba said. Since the startling revelation, the couple had been quarrelling most of the time.
Speaking about her experience of the last five months, Mahbuba said, "On November 23 night, Anwar beat me mercilessly leaving me badly bruised. And then he put salt on my bruises."
In the morning of November 24, Mahbuba went to their shop to find her husband talking to his new found love over the phone, instantly infuriating the wife. At one stage of the altercation, Anwar took a can of petrol from the shop, doused Mahbuba with the incendiary liquid and set her ablaze.
Critically injured Mahbuba was first sent to Borhanuddin Health Complex and then to DMCH.
Mujahid Khan, the victim's brother, filed a case with Borhanuddin police station implicating Anwar's parents and brother too. Anwar is currently in police custody.
Just before Anwar was arrested from DMCH on November 29, he told journalists that he had not set fire to Mahbuba, rather she set herself on fire.