Slain UP cop's wife wants govt jobs for 8 relatives

The number of relatives for whom Parveen Azad, 24, the widow of deputy superintendent of police Zia-ul-Haque, wants government jobs has now risen to eight. Manish Chandra Pandey reprots.

The number of relatives for whom Parveen Azad, 24, the widow of deputy superintendent of police Zia-ul-Haq, wants government jobs has now risen to eight.

Most of them are from her maternal home. The move has led to bickering in the family that is supposed to be in mourning.

Azad had earlier got chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to visit her husband’s ancestral village in Deoria on Monday and agree to meet her demands for compensation, security, her husband’s postmortem report, a CBI inquiry and jobs for herself and two relatives.

“I think after marriage, a husband’s family becomes the wife’s family. Naturally, names from the husband’s side should have gone, but names from the other family too are on the list. This has been most embarrassing,” a family member confided.

On his part, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav understandably remained noncommittal on whether his government would provide jobs to all eight relatives. Azad’s own family appears to be against the manner in which ‘some people’ have been ‘bargaining’ with the government.

“We want justice,” Haq’s younger brother Sohrab, told HT. Sohrab, Rustam (a commerce graduate) and Azad were part of the original list of job claimants okayed by the CM.

In fact, on Wednesday, government officials visited Azad to collect their bio data. But even they admit that they are ‘shocked’ at the manner in which attempts are being made to ‘bargain’ over the murder of a conscientious police officer. The officers feel this would set a bad precedent.

Azad has also got an offer to contest Lok Sabha elections from Mohammad Ayub, the Peace Party chief. BSP chief Mayawati too plans to visit Deoria.