Son, and I reached Peshawar on the nineteenth of November. Literally everything was covered with dust. I didn’t know where to start. Anyway first thing first was the kitchen. With Son in tow you have to think of food first. By evening I was grimy, and my bones ached with tiredness. Meanwhile Son, and wife rested the whole day, only surfacing briefly to eat.
Bad news hit us in the evening. My evil step brother in law Bashir together with his nephews Omer, and Bilal had told my chowkidar (watchman) in the village home to handover the keys of the house to them, and vacate the house, and land. Our next day started with waiting at the office of the DPO of police. We had to give them duplicate copies of deeds to our home, and land. We were directed to meet with the SHO of our area. It was already four in the evening.
We arrived with the police at our village home. Bashir was in the village attending a marriage. The police took him to the Thana (police station), while Omer, and Bilal had run into hiding. Midway to Peshawar, we were told to come to the Thana too.
We were made to sit with Bashir. He had retracted on his threats to our chowkidar. The police let him go. Tired, and hungry (we had been without food the whole day) we made our way back to Peshawar.
Since the death of Aziz (my late husband’s younger brother) in November 2017, Bashir, and his nephews had started harassing us over our property in the village. If you see my earlier posts of Nov 2017 you will understand the background. Since then I had redoubled my efforts to sell the property in the village, but to no avail. Bashir, and his cohorts would drive away the prospective buyers.
As if B, and Co weren’t enough of a headache, we fell into the land mafia snare. The land mafia has powerful lords of the area, and their thugs looked for people like us (meaning a widow, and her only son living out of country). They are land grabbers who basically try to get other people’s assets for free, and kill them on some pretext, or other. Soon we were getting threats from them too. The person was a local MNA (member of the National Assembly)
Our woes weren’t enough. Son got COVID from our tenants down below. The mother who was living with them died from COVID. The whole house was infected. Son had a near death experience. Meanwhile Coco (my daughter in law) got COVID too. I had to look after both of them. I wasn’t well myself . With lack of sleep from worry, and tension, I rapidly lost weight. I suffered from travelers diarrhea throughout my stay. I was washing hands every second, and continually wore a mask, but thankfully didn’t get COVID.
Nola ( my daughter) was frantic with worry on our behalf. Son had to take leave without pay. He had recovered from COVID, but Nola made him stay so that I wasn’t left alone sick, and facing the threats. Meanwhile B took a stay on our village property so that we would be unable to sell it. B has laid claim to our property. We had to engage a lawyer. It will take years to resolve the case. I have given power of attorney to another lawyer so that if the the case is resolved he can sell it.
We are back here, but don’t know what’s going to happen next????
Flowers and Breezes 