Day: December 5, 2012

UMERKOT: A shutterdown was observed in Ghulam Nabi Shah town on Tuesday in protest against the police failure to track down the culprits of a criminal assault on a six-year-old Hindu girl on Sunday.

Several hundred people, mostly Hindus, held rallies in Umerkot, Dhoronaro and Ghulam Nabi Shah and demanded immediate arrest of the culprits. MNAs Dr Khatumal Jeewan and Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jeelani visited the victim’s family members on Tuesday and assured them that the culprits would be taken to task.

The girl was dumped at a desolate place within Ghulam Nabi Shah town after being subjected to a criminal assault and she was later admitted to the Civil Hospital Mirpurkhas for treatment.

Sindh Minister for Population Welfare Syed Ali Mardan Shah also visited the victim at the hospital on a special directive of Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and asked the doctors to ensure best medical facilities for her free of cost.

Dr Khatumal Jeewan told Dawn that the victim girl was assaulted near a guest house. He said that sniffer dogs brought by Umer Mangrio, the former taluka nazim of Pithoro, tracked the footprints of culprit into the same guest house.

Meanwhile, Meghwar community members from Umerkot, Sanghar, Pithoro, Kunri, Samaro, Tharparkar and other areas visited the affected family in large numbers and took out protest rallies to press the government to get the culprits arrested.

The Pithoro police have registered a case against unknown suspects on the complaint of Bhano, the uncle of the victim girl. Our Mirpurkhas correspondent adds: The population minister told the media that three teams of the Umerkot police had been set up to investigate the case and arrest the culprits.

He said that action would be taken against those doctors and other hospital staff who did not provide proper medical treatment to the girl when she was taken to the Umerkot hospital.

Civil Surgeon Dr Asghar Ali Arain who examined the girl on Tuesday said that her condition was improving as she had stopped bleeding. He said that initial reports suggested the girl was subjected to criminal assault.

Dawn

By: G Mursalin Marwat

LAKKI MARWAT: ANP MPA Yasmeen Zia has said that provincial government took practical steps to bring women into the mainstream and resolved their problems during the last four-and-a-half years tenure.

She said this while speaking at a function after distributing winter package among the deserving people at Bacha Khan Vocational Institute in Serai Naurang town on Tuesday. The female lawmaker distributed aid packages provided by Poverty Eradication Initiative (PEI), an NGO, among 506 deserving families, which will benefit 4721 individuals.

PEI Programme Implementation Expert Tayyab Hussain, Programme Assistant Mustafa Musarat, ANP District Senior Vice President Mamraiz Khan, General Secretary Fazal Rahim Khan and other office bearers were also present on the occasion.

Yasmeen Zia said that NGOs extend cooperation to the government to alleviate poverty and fulfil the needs of poor people. She said that women should come forward and play their role to reform society and promote virtues of honesty and straightforwardness.
She said that she paid heed to improve the female education facilities in the area and resolve the problems of womenfolk by providing them with employment opportunities. She claimed that due her efforts the ANP-led government carried out small and mega uplift works worth over two billion rupees in the district.

“The developmental projects on such a large scale have helped to put the backward district on the path of progress and prosperity,” he maintained.

Explosive device defused

Meanwhile, law enforcers defused an explosive device planted by unknown miscreants near the house of JUI-F provincial chief and former MNA Maulana Amanullah Khan in Tajori town.

According to an official source, Maulana Amanullah Khan’s son and former union council nazim Maulana Asghar Ali noticed some suspected material along the gate of their house and informed the local police. He said that law enforcers meanwhile reached the place and defused the explosive device.

The Nation

KARACHI: Workers of various political parties and people of religious minorities on Tuesday staged protest demonstration against the sexually assault five year old girl at a village in Umerkot.

A large number of Menghar community, political workers and civil society activists assembled outside the Karachi Press Club and chanted slogans for arrest of people involved in the sexual assault of a minor girl, Vejenti Menghwar, resident of Ghulam Nabi Shah Village. According to the protesters, minor Vejenti Menghwar was sexually assaulted and thrown at a deserted place in unconscious condition in Ghulam Nabi Shah Village on Sunday, but police had failed to arrest the culprits even after three days.

They alleged that Hashim Mangrio, a relative of an influential personality of the area, committed the crime, but he was still roaming free due to partisan role of police.

Hareef Chandio, Ghulam Qambar Hajano and Rasheed Sadhayo of Awami Jamhori Party, Zohra Akbar and Nasir Mansoor of Labour Education Foundation, Saeeda Gopan of Sindh Aurat Tanzeem, Sundar Phul Menghwar of Sindh Academic Foundation were also among the protesters.

Protesters demanded for immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the culprits involved in sexual assault of minor girl.

The Nation

MATLI: The residents of Matli organised a rally to create awareness among the masses on violence against women. Management Development Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, held the rally in the Badin district in collaboration with the USAID.

A 16-day programme has been started to create awareness on women’s issues in 23 districts of Sindh. The rally’s participants, including women and social workers, marched through different roads and arrived at the club roundabout, where the programme’s project director, Adnan Memon, and others addressed the crowd.

The Express Tribune