Day: May 18, 2011

SUKKUR: Five people, including two women, were killed on Tuesday on charges of Karo Kari, police said. In Miani village, accused Abdul Rehman Mirani shot his wife Azit Khatoon and his sister-in-law Shama dead over alleged illicit relations.

In a separate incident in Kamber, Soomar Bhatti shot his niece Sardara and her alleged paramour Ramazan dead. Meanwhile in Kosar colony of Mirpur Mathello, Agha Shaikh shot his sister-in-law Benazir dead over Karo Kari and managed to escape.

Source: The News

Date:5/18/2011

By Manzoor Ali

Four others are being investigated on charges of harassing female students.

PESHAWAR: The University of Peshawar (UoP) suspended a lecturer following initial investigations into sexual harassment charges leveled by female students, sources said.

They told The Express Tribune that a teacher of the university’s history department, was suspended, while investigations against four other teachers are in progress.

At present, a four-member committee formed by the provincial government and headed by Minister for Social Welfare Sitara Ayaz, as well as another four-member internal committee of the UoP, is probing the matter.

The issue was brought to light by Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) lawmaker Nighat Orakzai on the provincial assembly floor on April 19.

She said that several parents had complained to the vice chancellor about senior teachers and heads of various departments being involved in sexual harassment of female students. The grounds of suspension were not immediately clear, as the committee formed by the provincial government is yet to file its report into the incident.

The other committee, according to a UoP source, was formed on Monday and is being headed by the Dean of the faculty of Social Sciences Dr Sarah Safdar. Ayaz told The Express Tribune that they have prepared a first draft of their report, which will be submitted to the government within the next two to three days.

“We have prepared our first draft and are now looking into the legal issues. The committee has a meeting scheduled for Wednesday in this regard,” Ayaz said.

Sources said that others under scrutiny are senior faculty members of different departments. However, their names have not been disclosed.

Source: The Express Tribune

Date:5/18/2011

CHISHTIAN – Three persons including a girl who contracted free will marriage were killed and five other including husband of the girl were injured when relatives of the girl, who were angry over her love marriage, opened fire at them.

According to detail, Sajida Parveen, a residence of Chak-114/Murad, daughter of agriculturist late M Abdullah contracted love marriage with his relative namely Aqeel. Sajida, a schoolteacher, is the only child of her parents. In this way, she is the owner of commercial and agricultural land. All her relatives were angry on her marriage and had borne a grudge against the couple. On the day of the incident, she went to her agricultural land to examine crop. Meanwhile, armed persons opened fire at her. Listening to the gunshots, her husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law rushed to her rescue but could not save her.

The culprits also let off a volley of gunshot at them, killing Muhammad Zakriya, the father-in-law of the girl and his son Munsha on the spot.

While her husband Aqeel, Muhammad Yousaf, Muhammad Kashif and Musharraf (a contractor) sustained bullet wounds and the accused fled away from the scene.

The injured were rushed to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Chishtian from where Muhammad Yousaf was referred to Bahawalpur due to his critical condition. The police handed over the bodies to the heirs after autopsy. The Daharanwala Police have registered a case of the incident.

Electrical appliances gutted: The electrical appliances (worth of Rs.2 million) were gutted due to fire in the godowns of Daska’s prominent electrical appliances dealer Haji Zaheer Butt situated at Daska city’s congested Kutchery Chowk locality.

Source: The Nation

Date:5/18/2011

By Ali Hassan

ISLAMABAD: Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Akmal Khan ordered Station House Officer (SHO) Industrial Area Police Station to register a First Information Report (FIR) of a case in which two persons managed to abduct a girl and sexually assaulted her.

Balqees Akhtar, mother of the girl, filed an application with court on Tuesday under section 22-A against Industrial Area Police Station for not registering FIR. In petition Ms Akhter said she ran a local NGO in Rawalpindi and Azhar Karim, a resident of Sector I-8/2 had visited him related to affairs of NGO. She said in the petition that Karim introduced her with a person Mian Asif, who claimed to be a Civil Judge of Rawalpindi and a landlord who assured her that he would raise funds for her NGO.

She further stated that after a while Asif allegedly showed interest in marrying her daughter, for his friend Atif Shahzad. She accepted the request and her daughter got married with Shahzad but she alleged that he was a notorious, cheater and a blackmailer as he started demanding hand of another daughter of the petitioner (Ms Akhtar) who was already having three wives.

She maintained in the petition that, one day Asif through a lady called her daughter and abducted her forcefully with his friend Karim and entered Sector G-11/3. She alleged that Karim and helped Asif to rape her said daughter on gunpoint.

According to petition, when the victim made noise, the lady beaten her and Asif threatened that Asif was a judge and in case she created trouble or told anyone about that matter she along with her family shall be killed or sent to jail. She said that the alleged culprits were still passing life threats to her.

She said she moved an application February 3, 2011 to the respondent, who instead of registering the case against the alleged persons, started inquiry and failed to register the case in spite of finding them guilty in the case.

According to the petitioner the Industrial Area Police Station official called her time and again nothing was done to meet her demand. She said that until now, no action had been taken up either by the relevant police or any high ups of the police and they failed to arrest the criminals due to their influence upon them, besides the case had not been registered against them so far.

On Tuesday Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Akmal Khan observed that due to the sensitivity of the case further investigation would be preceded in the matter. The court ordered Industrial Area Police Station to register FIR against the alleged persons involved in girl rape. According to Rawalpindi District Court Superintendent neither a judge in the name of Asif had been here nor anybody was working now. “If that person poses to be a judge then he must be lying,” he concluded. Industrial Area Police Station ASI Daraya Khan told Daily Times that police station had received an application about that matter but there was no evidence about the alleged person.

Source: Daily Times

Date:5/18/2011

By Mohammad Asghar

RAWALPINDI: Two teenage sisters were allegedly gang raped by five men in their house in Gulzar-i-Quaid on Monday, police said.

The investigating officer (IO) told Dawn that the sisters, aged 15 and 17, have identified two of the rapists. “They had no link or relation with the girls. They were gangsters and will be captured soon.” The IO said two of the culprits nominated in the FIR are students.

At the time of horrific incident, police said the two sisters were alone at home.

Mohammad Haris, a university student and married with the elder sister of the victims, told the Airport police that he had been staying at the house of his in-laws for the last few months. He said his wife and the mother-in-law went to Pindi Bhattian to offer condolence at one of their relatives` house, adding that he was in Dhoke Kashmirian at the time of the incident. “Around 2.30am I returned home and saw two persons coming out the apartments` building.”

Inside the apartment, he found his sisters-in-law sobbing. Quoting the sisters, he said their ordeal continued for hours, adding that they were severely beaten by the five men. He said one of them introduced himself as policeman.

Police sent the victims for medical examination after registering a case and launching a hunt for the accused. According to police statistics, 13 cases of rape and gang rape had been reported from January to April this year, and 24 accused had been nominated by the victims. Of them, the police have arrested only nine so far.

“It`s a very disturbing incident. We have launched a big hunt to catch the culprits,” the IO said.

Source: Dawn

Date:5/18/2011