Students harassed in Karachi, Lahore
#KarachiUniversityIsNotSafe trended on twitter on Thursday, October 8 after a Facebook post by a male student of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) detailing a traumatic event in which a female student was chased and harassed by young men on motorcycles within Karachi University (KU) premises made rounds on social media.
Shaheer Ali, a senior IBA student, narrated that he and his two female friends were returning from a birthday party in his car on Thursday night, and had just dropped one of the female students at her IBA hostel. They were headed toward maskan within the KU premises when a group of about ten young men, estimated to be between 15 to 25 years of age, on four motorcycles began giving them chase.
Ali related that the group verbally harassed the two, and at one point managed to stop the car, after which they began banging on the windows demanding that the female passenger be surrendered to them. They were able to drive away and escape.
After the post went viral, KU security adviser Dr. Moeez Khan stated that the university was able to identify six suspects. All six individuals are minors and children of university staff members – according to the university administration, the harassment victims will identify the suspects in an identity parade. The police, taking note of the incident, stated that neither the university nor the harassment victims have approached the police to lodge a formal complaint, and that the university assured that it would resolve the matter internally.
Meanwhile, in Lahore, a female student residing in a hotel in Lahore alleged that she was harassed by police personnel who forcibly entered her room, verbally abused her and took her phone number. The student stated that police chowki in-charge Arshad Bhatti and some other policemen knocked on her door at 2:30 AM and began harassing her. They made her leave her hotel room and give them her number. Afterwards, two policemen forced themselves into her room and verbally abused her. The Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) has taken note of the incident and has directed Lahore CCPO Umar Sheikh to submit an inquiry report on the incident.
Minor boys and a girl raped in Punjab, another minor girl sexually assaulted in Sindh
A ten-year-old boy was found murdered in Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, after he had been subjected to rape and torture by one Pervez Lashari on Wednesday, October 7. According to the victim’s father, Nisar Ahmed, he had hired Lashari to work in his fields. On Wednesday evening, his son Muhammad Abdullah had gone with Lashari on his motorbike to run an errand but the boy never returned. Upon a search of the fields, the boy’s naked body was discovered in a sugarcane field. Police managed to arrest the accused who confessed to sodomizing the boy before strangling him to death.
Chani Goth police on Thursday October 8 arrested a male domestic worker for raping his employer’s minor son in Bahawalpur, Punjab. According to the police, the suspect was employed by one Ayyaz Khan. On the day of the incident, Khan was absent from his home leaving behind his son, whom the accused managed to lure outside before raping him. Upon finding the boy in critical condition, he was rushed to a basic health unit.
An eight-year-old girl was raped by a shopkeeper while his two accomplices filmed the incident in Chenab Nagar in Chiniot, Punjab. The rape survivor, the daughter of a labourer, was lured by the suspect into his shop and subjected to sexual assault. She was later discovered at the shop when his daughter did not return on time. Chenab Nigar police managed to nabbed the prime accused upon the father’s complaint, while the two accomplices are still at large.
Dadu A-Section police are on the hunt for an influential figure accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a ten-year-old girl in Dadu on Wednesday, October 7. According to the girl’s father, she was returning home from school when the suspect abducted her, and raped her in his home before abandoning her on a roadside. She was taken to Dadu Civil Hospital for emergency treatment while the results of her medico-legal examination from the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) are awaited.
