QUETTA: Pakistan’s social landscape, sadly, is never bereft of gruesome and heart wrenching incidents. It was discovered on Sunday that a man hailing from Loralai district’s Naseerabad area had his eyes gouged out by his brothers and father after he expressed his desire to marry a woman he had fallen love with over the mobile phone. Abdul Baqi, the man who dared to strike against the bounds set by tradition, was rushed to the Civil Hospital in Quetta, where sadly, no eye specialist was available to treat him. Baqi was then taken to the Helpers Eye Hospital where too the lack of an eye specialist delayed his treatment. Recounting his horrific ordeal, Baqi claimed that his father and brothers locked his mother in a room and tied him up with a rope. They then gouged his eyes out with a spoon and ‘chopped them into pieces with a knife’. Reliving his tragic love story, Baqi said, “I liked a girl from Duki. My father and brothers were not happy with my choice. They often used to tell me that they will never allow me to marry a girl who keeps chatting on the mobile phone with me. They told me that they were ‘mullas’ (religious men) and cannot bear such a relationship.” The police, fortunately, have apprehended the culprits who now await justice. A brother of the victim who was not involved in the incident has appealed to the government to assist the victim.