Minor girls raped in separate incidents in Punjab
Two minor girls were sexually assaulted in separate incidents in Punjab.
On Monday, January 10, Sialkot police arrested a doctor for allegedly raping an eight-year-old girl in the Fazalpura neighbourhood of Sambrial in Sialkot district.
The survivor’s father, who is employed as a gardener at the Government Islamia Degree College, told police that he had sent his daughter out to get medicine from a local doctor. When she did not return home, he went out looking for her and visited the clinic he had sent her to, only to find the accused sexually assaulting her.
A first information report (FIR) was lodged on the complaint of the survivor’s father while the accused was arrested on the directives of the District Police Officer (DPO), Omar Saeed Malik.
In the second incident, an 11-year-old girl was allegedly repeatedly raped over the course of five months by her step-uncle in Tahir Kalan village on the outskirts of Okara.
According to the girl’s father, he had remarried in 2017 and with his daughter from his first marriage moved in with his new in-laws. He was kicked out by his mother-in-law and brother-in-law, Riaz, a few months later, however his daughter remained with them. He alleged Riaz began sexually abusing his daughter.
The complainant said that he went back to his in-laws to retrieve his daughters, but the accused refused. The survivor’s father eventually won custody through the courts. Following a medical examination of the minor girl, Basirpur police arrested Riaz under rape charges. Investigation is ongoing.
Punjab CM takes note of torture of elderly Sialkot woman
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar ordered legal action against people seen beating up an elderly woman in video that went viral on social media recently, and sought a report from the Inspector General (IG) of Police.
The incident reportedly took place in Sialkot. In the video, a man can be seen dragging the incapacitated victim along the ground by a sweater before a groups of women begin slapping and kicking her. A woman hits her with a shoe while another man cracks a stick on the back of the elderly woman’s head. According to online reports, the incident came about due to a 13-year-old land dispute between the victim and her attackers.
The Punjab Chief Minister assured that justice will be extended to the woman and no leniency will be afforded to the attackers. Meanwhile, Sialkot police have lodged a case against 15 suspects and have managed to arrest five persons in connection with the incident, including women.
Rape suspect flees court after bail rejection
An accused in a case pertaining to the sexual assault of an underage girl escaped from the Islamabad District and Sessions Court on Monday after a judge turned down his pre-arrest bail plea.
In December 2021, suspect Farhanuddin and his friend, cricketer, Yasir Shah were implicated in the case by the rape survivor’s aunt. According to the complainant, she was an acquaintance of the latter and went with her niece to visit him in Lahore. Around three months after the visit, the girl appeared unwell and bothered. Upon inquiring, she told her aunt that Shah’s friend, Farhanuddin, took her contact details and befriended her after a few days of chatting. The rape survivor also claimed that the suspect also established contact between her and Shah on WhatsApp.
On August 14, 2021, after returning home from tuition, the accused took the underage girl to an apartment in Islamabad’s F-11 where he sexually assaulted her at gunpoint and even filmed her. The complainant stated that her niece further revealed that the suspect threatened to kill her and upload her videos online if she told anyone of what happened. Following the incident, Farhanuddin summoned the teenager to the apartment another time where he once again allegedly sexually assaulted her. The complainant told police that Shah also threatened to trap the girl in a fake case if she lodged a complaint.
Farhanuddin had filed for pre-arrest bail with the courts, however in a hearing on Monday, Additional District and Sessions Court Judge Ata Rabbani turned down his petition. The suspect then fled the court room, successfully dodging police.
