Day: September 23, 2022

Police have recovered a teenage girl who was kidnapped a few days ago and arrested three of her alleged kidnappers.

The DPO of Okara, Farqan Bilal, told The Express Tribune that a few days ago, a 16-year-old girl had been abducted from the limits of the Chochak Police Station.

He said that an FIR of the case had been registered on the complaint of the girl’s mother and a special team formed under the leadership of the DSP of Renala Circle, Inamul Haq, to recover the girl at the earliest.

The team recovered the girl and arrested three accused. Among the accused were Ghulam Murtaza, Mohammad Shakeel and Mohammad Mudassar while one accused Nadeem alias Demi was on the run. The police team was conducting raids to arrest the fugitive.

Meanwhile, the DPO announced appreciation certificate and cash rewards for the police team for their successful action in recovering the girl.

Source: The Express Tribune

Rape has long been endemic in Pakistan. More than 14,000 women across the country have been subjected to rape — nearly 11 a day — in the past four years, according to official data. These are just the number of reported cases and the tally would rise significantly if unreported and mismanaged cases were included. The state and the criminal justice system have failed miserably to curb the growing social evil as laws are not implemented and perpetrators are let off without punishment.

A similar incident occurred in Mithi town of Sindh, where a woman was allegedly gang-raped while travelling to Hyderabad. She was subsequently forced to resort to a jirga instead of lodging an FIR as the police were reluctant to register the case due to strong influence of local figures. After justice could not be served, her trauma and helplessness urged her to take the extreme action of committing suicide. Now, in usual Pakistani fashion, the police have booked two suspects and are looking to provide justice to the dead.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident. One of the reasons why the conviction rate of rape is deplorably low is because of the dominant narrative on women’s sexuality, as ambiguity regarding coercion and duress was initially introduced under the Hudood Ordinances of 1979. While legal standing has changed and rape criminalised under the Protection of Women Act and subsequent measures like the two-finger test being abolished, the pervading mindset remains regarding the female body remains. On such matters, the law must speak loud and clear so that authorities are able to implement them in the best possible manner without a possibility of interpretation. The courts need to seriously gear themselves up, clear all pending rape cases, and punish perpetrators in accordance with the law. It is about time that we gave victims the justice they deserve.

Source: The Express Tribune

Police investigators have detained two suspects in connection with the rape and murder of a teenage girl in the Korangi area.

District Korangi SSP Faisal Bashir Memon on Thursday said the detained men were being questioned and their DNA samples had also been obtained. The officer maintained that a case had already been registered and the suspects involved in the incident would be identified and arrested soon.

Meanwhile, the family members of the teenage girl staged a protest against the incident and refused to bury the victim till the perpetrator was brought to justice. The 13-year-old girl was found dead in her house located in Sector 50, 100-Quarters in Korangi within the limits of the Zaman Town police station on Tuesday. Her father, Abu Tahir, said he found his daughter’s body hanging from the ceiling when he returned home from work.

The father explained that when he went to work, he left the victim and her elder sister at home. He added that the girls’ mother had left the family in the recent past. He said that when the elder sister returned home after an errand, she knocked on the door but it was not opened. Later, when the father he came back from work, he also knocked on the door but it was again not opened.

“The door was locked from inside,” the ill-fated man narrated. “I found my daughter’s hanging body in a room on the first floor after I managed to enter the house by jumping inside from a neighbour’s wall.”

Besides family members and relatives, a large number of neighbours also joined the protest along with shopkeepers of the area who shut their businesses down in protest against the minor girl’s rape and murder.

The protesters demanded justice and warned that they would not bury the victim until justice had been served. Talking about the police performance, the father said the police were not taking the case seriously and had been unable to trace and arrest the murderer.

Tahir said he had no enmity towards anyone and did not have any idea about the perpetrator. During the autopsy, doctors confirmed that the girl had been raped many times. Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed also confirmed torture marks on the slain girl’s neck. “Swabs have been prepared for semen serology and DNA profiling and cross-matching. Cause of death was determined as asphyxia due to constriction of neck. Visceral samples for chemical analysis have been collected to rule out intoxication.”

Meanwhile, police officials said a police team had been formed to investigate the case and the investigators were recording the statements of the family members, relatives and neighbours. Police suspect some insider could be involved in the rape and murder. A case has been registered on the complaint of the father.

Source: The News

In yet another incident of molestation, a 12-year-old girl was raped at gunpoint in Bahawalnagar, Punjab on Thursday. The incident took place in Bahawalnagar’s Pir Shah Area, where an unknown accused kidnapped a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint and raped her. The accused after raping the girl fled away from the crime scene.

The police have registered case of the incident and moved the rape-victim to the district hospital. In one such incident, a woman was raped during a robbery attempt in Faisalabad, last year. 10 men barged into a house located in Islam Nagar, a locality in Samundri, Faisalabad, while one of the men of the muggers’ group raped the woman.

Source: Pakistan Observer