PTI

• Husband’s bad dream after a tiff with wife
• Wife tells friends about it
• Word reaches community leaders
• They intervene and ask the spouses to separate
• The couple refuse to obey, matter still undecided

Siliguri, Mar 27: Here is a case of a bad dream turning into a living nightmare for a happily married couple.  And their problem centres around the husband’s utterance of triple ‘talaq’ in a dream one night some months ago.  Now the spouses are being pressurized by the community leaders to separate or face social boycott.

With the couple refusing to obey the other since there was no discord between them, the case still remains unsolved.

Aftab Ansari and Sohela were married 11 years ago and although poor they were understanding enough.

However, on the night of December 20, 2005, Aftab had a tiff with Sohela and went to sleep.  An apparently disturbed Aftab uttered the word ‘talaq’ thrice in his sleep which his wife heard.

She later discussed the matter innocently with  her close friends and soon it reached the ears of the conservative Muslim leaders.

The leaders, quoting Shariyat, ruled that the ‘talaq’ had to be enforced and if it was not acceptable, the only alternative was temporary separation for 100 days during which period the wife would live at her parents’ house.

Also she would have to marry someone else and spend one night with him.  She could remarry Aftab only after her new husband gave her ‘talaq’.

As the couple was unwilling to accept the verdict, the matter went to the family counseling centre at Falakata police station in Jalpaiguridistrict.  The counseling centre, attended by judges of the Alipurduar sub-divisional court, discussed the problem in detail on Saturday but failed to find an acceptable solution.

Additional District Sessions Judge (second track) Muhammad Abdul Jalil then directed the general secretary of the Anjuman Committee Muhammad Abdul to settle the issue, sources at the counseling centre said.