A groom was assaulted at his own wedding after his first wife showed up with their child and informed the bride that he was previously married to her and another woman as well.
According to BBC, Asif Rafiq Siddiqi was slapped, shoved, his pants and shirt tore by the angered crowd following the shocking revelation.
While polygamy is legal in Pakistan and a man can marry up to four wives, he must first get the consent of his wives before acquiring a new wife.
Wedding banquet interrupted
After Asif failed to honor this critical step, an enraged woman and her family stormed the wedding banquet in Karachi, Pakistan’s most populous city.
In a video of the event, one of the bride’s relatives is heard inquiring from the angry woman what the matter is.
The woman, identified as Madiha Siddiqi went ahead to reveal that Asaf is her husband, saying that he had lied to her he was traveling for three days.
“He is my husband, and he is the father of this child. He told me he was going to Hyderabad for three days,” she claimed, before introducing more people she claimed to be her relatives.
“That is my mother-in-law and that is my jethani (sister-in-law), who said her mother had been sick for three days and was on IV drips.
“Didn’t you know that he was my husband? He didn’t even think about this innocent child,” she confronted the bride.
According to Siddiqi, she met the groom at Karachi’s Federal Urdu University where he works and they tied the knot in 2016.
Repeat offender
Siddiqi further claimed that it was not the first time Asaf was marrying behind her back as in 2018, he married his second wife, Zehra Ashraf secretly. She said that she had learned of the marriage through a text message from his second wife.
It was also Ashraf who informed her of the third marriage, sending her seething with rage to the wedding.
Beaten
The bride’s incensed relatives pounced on the groom and beat him up before the police rescued him and took him to a local police station.
However, the bride’s family followed him and lay waiting outside the police station.
As soon as Siddiqi emerged, the relatives pounced on him, prompting him to seek refuge under a bus.
Video from the scene shows the bride’s family threatening to burn the bus lest the cowering groom comes out.
He was rescued from the angry mob by unknown persons.
Speaking to BBC, a police officer said that a formal complaint was yet to be filed.
“It is a family matter, and the complainants need to go the family court to settle their issues,” he said.
