Day: April 9, 2012

ISLAMABAD: Six persons charged with gang raping two schoolgirls were given on four-day physical remand to the police on Saturday.

Police produced the accused in the court of a civil judge and sought their custody for seven days for investigation and interrogation.

Meanwhile, investigation into the crime revealed that one of the accused had friendship with a victim (KB) for the last two-and-a-half years. On April 3, the accused (A) convinced her for a date.

The girl reportedly said she would come along with her friend (SB).

The accused arranged a Toyota Corolla the same day and also made arrangements in the property office in connivance with one of his accomplices.

The next day – April 4 – at around 12:30pm, he reached the school along with another man (S) and after picking up the two girls drove towards the property office. When SB raised an objection to their going to the property office, she was silenced by her friend, KB.

Four persons were already present in the office when the two men brought the girls there.

Upon their arrival, one of the men present in the office went out leaving behind the five men and the two girls inside.

The accused took SK to another room forcefully and subjected her to torture and then raped her. As a result, she started bleeding profusely.

KB was not subjected to rape but assaulted by two of the accused due to her physical condition.

At around 3pm, the victims reached their houses after the accused asked them to leave.

Later SK narrated the incident to her mother who along with some neighbours reached the property office and quarreled with the property dealer. However, he showed ignorance about the matter and promised to probe.

Later, the family decided to lodge a complaint with the police.

The father of the victim – SHS – approached the police and Rescue-15 and lodged a complaint and took the girl to hospital when the police did not respond at around 8:20pm.

When Superintendent of Police Mohammad Ilyas received information from Rescue-15 that the girls had been brought to the hospital with complaint of gang rape, he reached the hospital and also called the SHO of Shahzad Town to the spot and inquired the matter from the father of the victim.

Later, statements of the victims were recorded.

In response, the SP along with SK’s mother raided the property office and after 48 hours police arrested all the six accused – two brothers and the remaining cousins.

Dawn

Ammar Shahbazi

Karachi: On a usual day, her brother would pick her up from the parlour she frequented to take a beautician’s course. The 15-year-old girl had keenly enrolled for the course in her hometown of Jacobabad around two-and-a -half months ago.

But one fateful day, when her brother went to pick her at 10:00 pm, not an unusual time, the owner of the parlour said that she had left some four hours ago. It’s been more than a month since, and Aisha Kumari is still missing.

Her eldest brother Vinod Kumar said Aisha did not have a cell phone. “She never went outside the main door of our house on her own. Somebody had to accompany her. That’s how we raise our daughters. Now it has been a month and she is still away,” he said.

Aisha’s brother and uncle came to Karachi in search of help to find their “little child”. They approached a number of media outlets because they felt their plight was being ignored by the mainstream media, unlike the other cases of abduction. They did not know anybody in the city and were staying at a temple near Cantt Station.

The Hindu community in Sindh launched a string of protests against abduction and “forced conversions” of young girls from the community including the one held in Karachi on Sunday.

“We are witnessing an excruciating trend,” said Dr. Ramesh Kumar, Patron of Pakistan Hindu Council, “There is a rise in the number of kidnapping and forced conversion cases like never before.” Ramesh claimed that 20-30 Hindu girls are reportedly abducted every year in Sindh alone for forced conversion “apart from the ones that go unreported”.

But Aisha’s family says it considers her as a case of just kidnapping. “If she is being forced to convert or not is something we do not know because we don’t know where she is and what is happening to her,” said Sundar Mal, the uncle.

The case of Aisha’s abduction is one of the three cases noted and being heard by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan alongside the cases of Rinkle Kumari and Dr. Lata. “The chief justice asked law-enforcement agencies to produce the girl by 18th of this month (April),” said Mr. Mal. “We are pinning all our hope that she will be produced.

Compared to the high-profile cases of Rinkle Kumari and Dr. Lata, the story of Aisha was given less coverage in the media which saddens her family members. The reason for this, said a social activist who chose not to be named, is said “Aisha’s family is not financially strong and socially influential, like the other two.”

“The situation is at its most urgent. It’s not a question of religion or anything. In the cases of Dr. Lata and Rinkle Kumari, we know they are alive, but my sister is missing. Despite the urgency of the situation, nobody is interested in our story,” said the brother.

SP Jacobabad Zafarullah Dharejo, who is investigating the case, said that the owner of the parlour is in custody and the police in Jacobabad are making every effort to recover the girl. “We are doing our best. We raiding places and acting on every bit of information.”

But such statements mean nothing to the family of Aisha. “The stoves in our house have gone cold. Nobody feels like eating. We stopped cooking. Our family’s honour, name and everything is hanging by a thread. It’s impossible to explain what we are going through. We want Aisha back,” said her brother.

The News

Intikhab Hanif

LAHORE: Not a single step has been taken to implement the Punjab Women Empowerment Package announced with much fanfare by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif about a month back.

The only step taken immediately after the announcement of the package was the creation of a separate women development department and the appointment of a woman DMG officer as its secretary.

Since then the secretary, who is awaiting a separate office and the staff, is sitting alone in social welfare department offices set up in a rented place. The request for the creation of one post of additional secretary, two posts of deputy secretaries and four of section officers too is facing red tape.

And to show that the new department is doing something, it plans to set up a daycare centre for the children of women employees of the Punjab Civil Secretariat.

But here, too, are some basic problems. The place selected for the centre is the chief secretary’s complaint cell situated near the main gate of the secretariat which now remains closed for security reasons.

The building was constructed during the Pervaiz Elahi’s government and was meant for a gymnasium and a utility store for employees.

Officials say a portion of it has been selected for the daycare centre because either the complaint cell has lost its vigour or the chief secretary is no more interested in it.

They say that running a daycare centre is more difficult than establishing it because any mishandling of any child may create immense problems for the government.A Karachi-based private company specializing in running such centres for women employees of big firms is being contacted. But it says it runs centres where the minimum of children is 15. “Lets see if we meet this requirement or not,” an official says.

Apart from this, half-baked effort which is replete with ifs and buts, all other major parts of the package in which the chief minister had taken a lot of pride, are yet to see the light of day.
The list of such parts especially contains legislation for which no paperwork has been started.

The proposed laws include amendment in the inheritance laws to ensure the rights of women, laws for home-based workers, for crises and rehabilitation held desks, for property rights and equal wages.

The package mentions amendments in rules for securing rights of women in the public sector employment and for their economic empowerment.

“The department meant for having this package is new and needs to itself become fully functional first,” an official remarked. But he still agreed that the stage of enforcing the package lacks the force with which it was announced. “I don’t know the reason, but it is true that the implementation stage lacks urgency,” he said.

Dawn