Two women and a minor girl raped in Khurrianwala
In the first incident, one Asad Jaswal lured a married woman from Mohalla Hajveri Town to his home and raped her at gunpoint. The rape survivor’s husband informed the police that the suspect is his close relative.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a domestic worker of Chak 393-GB informed the police that her employer Shahid Ali along with accomplices Asif Murad and Khadim Hussain took her to a cattle ranch where Shahid subjected her to sexual assault while the others kept watch. She also alleged that the prime accused filmed the assault.
Separately, one Kashif along with two others molested an eight-year-old girl while she was playing in a street at Jaranwala Road.
Police have registered cases for all three incidents that occurred on Tuesday, April 20, and are on the hunt for the suspects.
Peshawar High Court launches policy to clear case backlog
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday, April 19, launched its five-year District Judiciary Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Policy to clear case backlogs at district courts across the province.
According to the PHC registrar, a shortage of 24 additional district and sessions court judges and 83 civil judges/judicial magistrates alongside the outbreak of COVID-19 contributed to a backlog of 230,880 cases still pending with the district courts.
The policy will divide districts into three zones:
Zone A is for high workload districts that have more than 3,000 pending cases per area. These include Peshawar, Abbottabad, Charssada, Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan, Nowshera and Swabi.
Zone B indicates moderate workload (more than 1,000 pending cases per district) areas and include Bannu, Upper and Lower Dir districts, Haripur, Karak, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, Mansehra and Swat.
Zone C consists indicates low workload (less than 1,000 pending cases per district) areas and containe Bajaur, Battagram, Buner, Lower and Upper Chitral, Hangu, Khyber, Upper and Lower Kohistan, Kolai-Pallas, Kurram, Malakand, Mohmand, Orakzai, Shangla, Tank, Torghar, North and South Waziristan.
Under this five-year policy, the courts will aim for 100% disposal against freshly instituted cases and disposing of 20% pending cases annually.
Eight burnt in Duki coal mine explosion
Eight coal miners were brunt after an explosion occurred in a mine owned by a private company in Balochistan’s Duki area Monday night.
Abdul Ghaffar, Bahaullah, Manzoor, Matiullah, Naik Mohammad, Naimatullah, Sabir Shah and Siddique were working deep in the mine when the explosion occurred, triggering a partial collapse and releasing trapped methane. All miners were rescued and shifted to a district hospital, however three with serious burns were referred to a Quetta hospital for treatment.