An American woman was gang-raped in Pakistan: Police filed a lawsuit against 3 men
Islamabad:
A 21-year-old American activist and vlogger was raped last week by two men in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The incident has aroused the anger of Pakistani netizens, who demanded that the country’s authorities take stricter action.
When the story surfaced online, netizens indignantly condemned the “shameless” action, demanding strict punishment for the perpetrators. Netizens pointed out that ‘if Pakistanis are not safe in this country, how can foreigners be’. They said the cause of such crimes was a ‘lack of justice’, Dawn reported.
One user wrote that the country deserves to be branded with a “symbol of infamy”.
Another user tweeted, “Really shameful what happened to her. We were 83rd in travel rating and 26th in travel safety index (0-33 hazard). The perpetrators should be punished but society should also stop accepting any such cruelty and the people involved.”
“I don’t know where we are going as a country. We have failed to teach our young men to respect all women. We have failed to protect girls. Our politicians are only interested in playing musical chairs,” another user wrote.
The American girl was sexually assaulted in a hotel room in Dera Ghazi Khan’s Fort Monroe hill station on the night of July 17, while she was traveling. According to police officials, the woman had a tourist visa to Pakistan and had lived in the country for the past seven months.
Deputy Commissioner Dera Ghazi Khan Anwar Baryar said, “The American girl came to Fort Monroe from Karachi at the invitation of her social media friend Muzmal Sipra, with whom she visited her home on Sunday in Rajanpur district. of Punjab, about 550 kilometers from Lahore.”
The incident came to light after the survivor filed a First Information Report (FIR) at the Military Border Patrol (BMP) station at Fort Munro hill station. FIR informed that the woman was raped by Muzmal Sipra and Shehzad in Rajanpur on the night of July 17 in a hotel room.
The complainant also said she received threats from Sipra not to pursue legal proceedings against them.
BMP registered Dera Ghazi Khan’s case against Sipra, Shehzad and Azan Khosa under Sections 376 and 292b of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The alarming frequency of cases against women in Pakistan poses a great threat to women in the country as well as concerns the authorities.
A recent report, compiled by the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) and the Center for Research, Development and Communication, shows an increasing trend of violence against women in Pakistan along with the number of Domestic violence cases are on the rise in this country.
According to the report, a total of 157 women were abducted, 112 women were victims of physical assault and 91 women were raped across Pakistan during the month of June.
Punjab reported 53 cases of rape, followed by 16 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 14 in Sindh, six in Islamabad and two in Balochistan.
The capital of Punjab province, Lahore has reported a large number of sexual assault cases in the last week. The alarming frequency of incidents has prompted the Pakistani police to review the overall operation of the Gender-Based Violence Detention Chamber.
It was previously reported that Pakistan’s Global Gender Gap Index has deteriorated over time. In 2017, Pakistan ranked 143rd, in 2018 dropped to 148th.
According to last year’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2021’, Pakistan ranked 153 out of 156 countries on the gender equality index, i.e. among the last four.
A recent report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) states that in Pakistan, at least 11 rapes are reported daily with more than 22,000 such cases reported to the police in the last six years (2015-21) .
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
