Always starts with 'light' abuse: police surgeon on domestic violence

“She first came to me with some bruises on her body and it had only been months after marriage,” police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed Tariq recalls a remarkable case of domestic abuse as she explains how the violence is an incremental occurrence that must be nipped in the bud.

Had she, or anyone from her family, resisted the abuse meted out to her, the fate would have it differently, the first police surgeon shared with ARY News. “In her second visit just weeks later, her arm was broken, followed with another visit where I had to perform her autopsy.”

Tariq said that she urges people to go to police when either they personally experience domestic violence, or see somebody having to experience it feeling helpless.

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“Come to us [Women and Children Protection Cell] if you don’t feel comfortable with police, given whatever reputation they have in dealing with civilians and women.”

She said their department has the authority to send police to the victim/survivor safety and register the case of any domestic and gender-based violence.