LAHORE: Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer visited Mayo Hospital on Tuesday to inquire about a seven-year-old girl who survived gang rape allegedly by her maternal uncle and another man on Monday.

Governor Taseer’s daughter accompanied him to the hospital. The governor expressed sympathy with the girl’s parents and told them that the alleged rapists would be severely punished. “ We will see these savages off to hell,” he said. He also told the hospital administration to provide all medical treatment to the girl and that he would foot the bill. He also financially assisted the girl’s family.

Later, Governor Taseer told reporters that he thought of the girl as his daughter and that was why he had brought his daughter along to inquire about the girl. He also said that one of the accused had been arrested, while a special police team had been sent to Faisalabad to arrest the other accused. The girl was gang raped at Main Bazaar, Ganda Engine in Gawalmandi. Gawalmandi Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Malik Muhammad Ashraf quoted the girl’s father, Tahir, as saying that his daughter, Fariha, was playing in the street at about 8:30pm on Sunday when she was kidnapped. The DSP said two men on a motorcycle threw an unconscious Fariha outside Tahir’s house at about 5:30am on Monday. Fariha’s clothes were soaked in blood, the DSP quoted Tahir as saying. Tahir said that a neighbour saw the scene and told him about the motorcyclists’ appearance. Fariha was taken to Mayo Hospital, where she is being treated.

Tahir accused his brother-in-law, Atif, and his cousin, Zulfiqar, of kidnapping and raping his daughter. He said that they threw her outside his house after she fainted. DSP Ashraf said that Gawalmandi Police registered a case (number 258/08) on Tahir’s complaint and arrested Atif, a resident of Badami Bagh. He said that Zulfiqar was still at large and that the police were looking for him.
Source: Daily Times
Date:5/28/2008