Friday, June 17 2005 16:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Lucknow: The All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) today (Jun 17, 2005) strongly condemned a Muzaffarnagar Panchayat's verdict telling a woman allegedly raped by her father-in-law to treat her husband as son saying it was "extremely high-handed" and "un-islamic."

"While the act perpetrated by the accused Ali Mohammad was itself very shameful and criminal in nature, the community Panchayat, instead of sympathising with the victim, passed the baseless verdict, which is not supported by any tenet of the Quran, Board chairperson Shaista Amber told reporters in Lucknow.

The Board, she said, would write to the All India Muslim Personal Law Board demanding an inquiry into the incident and a ban on such maulvis and panchayats, which flout the 'shariat' and defame Islam to protect rapists and punish innocent victims.

If the Muslim lawmakers failed to provide justice to the victim, Amber warned that her Board would appeal to the country's judiciary to intervene and award the strictest punishment to the rapist.

"Quran calls for whipping and stoning of a rapist and not to be let free as done by the Maulvi in Muzaffarnagar...," Amber said expressing anguish at Dar-ul-uloom Deoband's silence on the issue and passing it to a local Shariat court.

Amber said a team of the Women's Muslim Personal law Board would soon visit Muzaffarnagar to inquire into the whole incident. She also lauded the media for bringing to light such incidents, which, have been occurring in the past but covered up by vested interests.