After she hit headlines last week for saying she has proof of ‘match fixing’ activities by her ex-boyfriend, cricketer Mohd Asif, Pakistani actor Veena Malik now claims that Asif had also physically abused her in the past.
Speaking to HT City from Lahore, she says, "I can’t keep my mouth shut if I know the truth." Veena, 26, says she chanced upon incriminating evidence against Asif when she suspected him of having an affair with an Indian girl and hired detectives to trace his calls. "The calls turned out to be from an Indian man involved in match fixing," she claims.
Revealing that Asif’s aggressive nature made her family turn against him, Veena, says, "When we met in December 2008, everything was hunky dory. Asif proposed to me in his house, where he had filled an entire room with flowers. It was dreamlike. I told myself, ‘This is the guy I’m going to marry’."
She says that after a few months of their relationship, Asif, who "sometimes drank too much", turned abusive. "Once, at a party, a guy was staring at me. Asif got angry and beat me up so much that I started bleeding." She also accuses him of cheating on her, saying that she confronted the women whom Asif was dating while he was still in a relationship with her. "I even spoke to these women, including an Indian girl, who begged that I don’t reveal her identity."
Sohail Rashid, Asif’s manager at the time he was dating Veena, backed her allegations. “Sometimes, Veena used to confide in me that Asif is ill-treating her and cheating on her. I advised her to confront him if he was physically hurting her,” he says.
{{/usCountry}}Sohail Rashid, Asif’s manager at the time he was dating Veena, backed her allegations. “Sometimes, Veena used to confide in me that Asif is ill-treating her and cheating on her. I advised her to confront him if he was physically hurting her,” he says.
{{/usCountry}}Vicky, a makeup artist and a common friend to Veena and Asif, says, “Veena would come to me to get her scars camouflaged. I suspected that she was being physically abused. When I asked her, she admitted Asif hit her.”
Veena, now engaged to an American national, Faisal Akbar Khan, says she has put the past behind. “Earlier this year, I had filed a case of cheating against Asif. He apologised later, and I forgave him. So, my allegations against him are not personal. I am hurt because we, as a nation, love cricket and this is what these guys are doing.”
Despite repeated attempts, Mohd Asif remained unavailable for comments on the allegations.