Day: December 21, 2011

By: Salis bin Perwaiz

KARACHI: The Jauharabad police raided a house in Goharabad on Tuesday and arrested two men who were about to sexually assault a 10-year-old girl.

The suspects also confessed to having raped and killed a six-year-old girl, Alishba, on December 12. Some residents, after having seen two suspicious people accompany a girl to a house, had alerted the police, who rushed to the house and conducted a raid, during which they found the two men attempting to rape the young girl.

The police overpowered the suspects and saved the child from being abused. They took the girl and the men to the police station, where the suspects identified themselves as Basheer and Abdul Majeed. They also confessed to having raped and murdered Alishba a few days ago.

Narrating the details of their brutal crime, one of the suspects, Basheer, told the police that he kidnapped Alishba on the evening of December 12 and took her to his house where he, along with his friend, Abdul Majeed, and a relative, Imran, gang-raped her.

As Alishba fell unconscious, Basheer and his accomplices thought that their victim would identify them once she regained her consciousness. They decided to kill the six-year-old. Basheer gorged the eyes of the girl and later strangulated her to death.

The suspects further told the police that after murdering Alishba, Basheer and Imran wrapped the body of the girl in a cloth sheet and dumped it in Gulistan-i-Jauhar. The police said that the suspect had planned to rape another girl, “N”, by offering the child some sweets and taking her to their house.

But for the timely action by the police, “N” might have been raped and killed. The police said that “N”, a resident of the same area, had also been a friend and classmate of Alishba. The body of Alishba was recovered on December 14 from the bush of Block II of Gulistan-e-Jauhar. Some residents had informed the Gulistan-e-Jauhar police after having spotted it.

She was the daughter of a labourer, Mohammed Nazeer. She had gone missing after going out of her house on that fateful day. The family had searched her at various places but could not find her. They later they lodged a complaint at the Jauharbad police station.

Source: The News

KARACHI: Police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested two suspected killers of an eight-year-old girl.

Speaking at a press conference, SSP-Central Asim Qaimkhani said the eight-year-old girl was kidnapped within the remit of the Jauharabad police station on Dec 14.

He said that after sexual assault the suspect killed the girl and dumped her body in Block 2, Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

The SSP said the suspects were caught trying to kidnap another girl nearly of the same age in the same area. However, area people caught and handed them over to police.

Quoting the small girl who escaped kidnapping on Tuesday, the SSP said she had seen the murdered girl with the two suspects.

He said the suspects were painters and residents of Jauharabad.

SSP Asim further said that during initial investigations the suspects confessed to having killed the girl.

He said both suspects were married and lived in the area with their families.

Source: Dawn

By: Imtiaz Ali

KARACHI: The members of the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution, urging the government to make honour killing (karo-kari) a non-compoundable offence and prosecute the killers under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Home Minister Manzoor Wassan revealed that a new secret force on the pattern of police’s Special Branch would be formed to prevent such killings and unearth hushed-up murders. He pointed out that a total of 197 cases of karo-kari were reported in Sindh during this year and 153 suspects had been detained in these cases.

In order to sensitise the police to properly investigate honour killing cases, a project with the financial assistance of United Nations has been launched, he added. The mover of the resolution, Nusrat Abbasi, believed that the police did not lodge FIRs in such cases. The PML-F legislator said that around 557 women had fallen victim to such abhorring practice in the province so far this year.

MQM’s minister Syed Sardar Ahmed suggested that the state itself should lodge FIRS in such cases. He also called for bringing amendments to the existing laws to make such killings non-compoundable.

Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haq said that honour killing was not a custom but an evil crime. Minister for Culture Sassui Palijo said the increasing rate of karo-kari cases was linked to the lack of the will to implement the laws. However, she added the existing laws rather protected the suspect on account of violation of the so-called family honour.

PPP’s Anwar Mahar opined that such killings would be curbed when girls would be allowed to marry of their free will. Sardar Jam Tamachi Unar called for increasing literacy rate to stop these killings.

Meanwhile, MQM’s Bilquees Mukhtar drew the attention of the house towards cases of kidnapping, criminally assaulting and killing young girls. She demanded that such culprits be punished publicly to deter such elements from committing this crime. Home Minister Manzoor Wassan said that the government was cognizant of the situation and suspects were being arrested.

PPP’s Dr Nasrullah Baloch said that if the two kidnapped doctors of Sukkur were not released, he would be compelled to join the doctors’ protest. Home minister replied that the kidnappers belonged to Balochistan and hoped that the doctors would be recovered soon.

Highways in pathetic condition

Chairman Standing Committee on Finance Ghulam Qadir Chandio said that the National Highway Authority (NHA) was earning around Rs60 billion from Sindh through collection of toll tax but the highways remained in pathetic condition in the province. In contrast, he added, the NHA was properly looking after the highways in Punjab.

Waste dumping

Irrigation Minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo said that the Sindh government had decided to take up the issue of industrial waste dumping by Punjab in Sindh before the CCI (Council of Common Interests).

Responding to a point of order raised by MQM’s Heer Soho, the minister said that Sindh had suggested for establishing a treatment plant to treat the polluted water being released by the industries of Sadiqabad, Rahimyar Khan and other districts of Punjab before releasing it into Dharki, Mirpur Mathelo and other areas of District Ghotki.

ANP’s Amanullah Mehsud said that around 500 tankers were illegally fetching water from hydrants in his constituency, depriving the residents of drinking water. Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani promised to take action against such elements.

Rs800m fraud in Excise Dept

During the question-hour session, Excise and Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said that inquiry into Rs800 million frauds was going on and three excise officials had been arrested while 23 others suspended. He, however, added that no action had so far been initiated against the officials of the National Bank of Pakistan who were also involved in the fraud of Motor Vehicle Tax.

Source: The News

ISLAMABAD: At least 675 women and girls were murdered during the first nine months of the year for allegedly defaming their family’s honour, a leading human rights group said on Tuesday.

The statistics highlight the scale of violence suffered by many women in Pakistan, where there is no law against domestic violence. Despite some progress on better protecting women’s rights, activists say the government needs to do far more to prosecute murderers in cases largely dismissed by police as private, family affairs.

“A total of 675 women and girls were killed in the name of honour across Pakistan from January to September,” a senior official in the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan told AFP.

They included at least 71 victims under the age of 18. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is unauthorised to speak to the media, said figures were still being compiled from October to December, and that a full report would be released in February.

The commission reported 791 honour killings in 2010 and there was no discernible decrease this year, the official added. Around 450 of the women killed from January to September were accused of having “illicit relations” and 129 of marrying without permission. Some victims were raped or gang-raped before being killed, he said. At least 19 were killed by their sons, 49 by their fathers and 169 by their husbands.

Source: The News

By: Sumera Khan

ISLAMABAD: Malala Yousafzai stood up against all odds. In defiance of the Taliban in Swat, she decided to acquire education and helped her peers to do the same. The thirteen-year-old’s dauntless struggle is to now be officially recognised.

Malala, who was recently honoured with the first National Peace Award for Youth, is to now have the award named after her. The annual award will now be known as the National Malala Peace Prize. It will be presented to outstanding Pakistan youth below 18 years of age.

Earlier, Malala was the first Pakistani child amongst the top five nominees from around the globe for a peace award on Universal Children’s Day. Although she didn’t receive the international award, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani decided to acknowledge her efforts for the promotion of education in the extremely hostile conditions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Malakand division.

The Prime Minister congratulated Malala and her parents for her courageous stand and reaching out to her classmates to carry on with their studies in defiance of the Taliban who had banned secular education during their campaign in Malakand. She was also congratulated by the premier and other ministers on receiving the runner-up prize from Dutch Organisation KidsRights.

“I convinced my friends and other classmates of the importance of education and told them that our primary education will decide our future,” she said. “I am thankful not only to the students but also to their parents for honouring my requests and sending their daughters back to school,” she added.

On Malala’s request herself, the prime minister has also directed the authorities to set up an IT campus in the Swat Degree College for Women.

For the upcoming year, Malala expressed her resolve to keep working for girls’ rights not only in Swat valley but across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. She is looking forward to support from the country as well as the Pakhtun community in this regard.

Source: Tribune