Tag: The Express Tribune

Islamabad: Artists, students and media practitioners asked the state on Tuesday to become guardian of the victims of honour crimes and help them get justice. They were at the launching of documentary Deception of Honour, said a press release issued by ActionAid Pakistan in Islamabad.

Mukhtaran Mai, a victim of honour crimes; Samar Minallah, a lawyer and social activist; and Sana Saleem, a student, were prominent speakers on the occasion.

Mai said that public awareness about the passage of law on honour killing is the key to thwart this evil tradition. “There should be a proper mechanism to make sure that women’s fate is not decided by tribal jirgas,” she said.

Minallah praised the parliament for passing women friendly bills such as the bills on acid violence, anti-sexual harassment and now honour killing. She said that even Islamic jurisprudence stresses for punitive laws to curb such evil practices, but unfortunately, in case of honour crimes, no punitive measure had been taken so far. Referring to Mukhtaran Mai, she said that women should not always be portrayed as victims rather they should be presented as survivors.

Saleem urged media to prioritise issues of women and stressed upon the government to take steps for providing free medical treatment to rape victims. She demanded an end to moral policing of women, saying such restrictions inhibit scope of social justice. She added that honour crimes can only be eliminated with literacy and awareness.

A personal story of Sania from Shahdadkot, Sindh was the most striking feature of the documentary. She told the audience through the documentary that she was forced to reach a compromise with her husband under pressure from her family and also because she was mother of three children.

The story sparked the participants to reflect upon social practices, where victims are forced to forgive the culprits. There was a unanimous demand that the state should come forward and protect the victim or survivor by becoming their guardian.

The launch was preceded by a day-long activity of mural paintings.

Claims the accused threatened her with dire consequences.

By Muhammad Sadaqat

HARIPUR: A married woman subjected to rape and blackmail by rapists, who filmed the incident, petitioned the court for registering an FIR against the accused, on Saturday.

The court has summoned the concerned station house officer on Monday. Nazia*, 25, a resident of Kangra village petitioned the district judge, Haripur, after the police refused to register a case.

She said she was asleep with her two minor children when two persons entered her room after scaling the boundary wall on Eidul Fitr. Her husband was with his first wife in a neighboring village.

The accused whom she identified as Roshan* and Israr*, held her at gunpoint and looted Rs1,80,000 cash. They subsequently raped her in front of her two minor children and filmed the incident. They threatened her of dire consequences in case she told her family when they left.

Nazia called her husband the next morning and he lodged a complaint with the Kotnajibullah police nominating the two accused for robbery. She said she had concealed the rape fearing they might harm her husband and children.

The accused who were not booked by the police began to blackmail her and threatened to upload her movie on the internet if she failed to pay up or revealed their names.

She said the accused called her and threatened her on her mobile phone four days back. Her husband, who had eavesdropped on the conversation, contacted the Kotnajibullah police again for registration of an FIR but the police was using delaying tactics.

When approached for comments, police sources said that neither the woman nor her husband had lodged any complaint of rape or robbery with them and there was no mechanism to determine the veracity of the claim of a married woman after four months. However, he confirmed that one of the accused has been booked.

This was the second case of rape in which the incident was filmed in a fortnight in Hazara. A girl was sexually assaulted in Kaghan valley and her rapist had filmed the crime and uploaded the movie on the internet. She had also kept quiet about the rape out of fear. He was later arrested by the police.

GUJRANWALA: A woman and her husband on Thursday filed a compliant with Saddar police against the woman’s brothers for attacking them and threatening to kill them.

Iqra Shahzadi alleged in the complaint that her brothers Asif, Qasim, Imran and their accomplices attacked her and her husband Ijaz’s family at their house in Jaleel Town. She said her brothers left threatening that they would kill her and her in-laws if she did not leave Ijaz and return to her family’s home in Chiragh Nagar.

Shahzadi said her family had turned against her after she married Ijaz in August 2011 without their permission.

She said her family had wanted her to marry an elderly man.

She said her brothers had on Wednesday assaulted them during a visit to her in-laws house in Chiragh Nagar. She said the family had gone to the house to collect some belongings as they had sold the house and rented another house in Jaleel Town to avoid the girl’s brothers who lived in Chiragh Nagar. “My brother would regularly confront my brothers-in-law in the market and beat them,” she said. She said her parents-in-law had finally decided to sell the house and move to Jaleel Town to avoid regular brawls.

She said an FIR had been registered following the Wednesday incident at Baghbanpura police station. However, she complained, while police had arrested three suspects including her brother Asif, they had also arrested three of her husband’s relatives.

On Thursday, Shahzadi said, Asif, Qasim, Imran and their accomplices allegedly broke into her house after being released by Baghbanpura police on an interim bail and assaulted her husband and his brothers. Ijaz demanded that the police take notice of the incident and provide security to his family.

“I’m concerned about my family’s security. The government should provide us protection.”

Station House Officer Babar Shoaib said he had received the complaint.

However, he said, in family disputes police usually registered the FIR after first attempting to resolve the matter through dialogue. He said he had called Shahzadi’s in-laws and her parents to his office on Friday (today) to discuss the issue.