February 7th, 2022
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE
A man was arrested in connection with ‘honour’ killing of his married sister who was gangraped a few days ago in Kot Momin tehsil of Sargodha.
The 28-year-old victim, a mother of five children, was gang-raped by four suspects in a neighbourhood where she was employed as domestic help. Police officials had registered a case against the suspects but took no action to arrest them saying they had secured bail.
Infuriated by the police inaction, the victim’s brother allegedly shot dead his sister with the help of his two brothers-in-law and fled the spot. Kot Momin DSP Ghulam Abbas told reporters that the accused also planned to murder the gangrape suspects next.
Calling it a test case, Abbas said police had become a complainant in the honour killing case instead of the victim’s parents to thwart any attempts by family members to forgive the accused. He said the murder accused had fled the district but a police team was able to track them swiftly.
Following the rape victim’s murder, police had taken the gangrape suspects in protective custody, Kot Momin DSP Ghulam Abbas said.
The gangrape case
According to the first information report registered with Luxian police station on February 3, the victim had told police she worked as a househelp at Behk Lurka village. On February 1, she was returning home late night when four persons accosted her on a neighbourhood street. She was forcibly taken inside a house where they raped her on gunpoint. The accused fled the house upon hearing her two relatives who had come to the neghbourhood to look for the woman.
“The gangrape victim lodged her complaint the following day and police officials had her medically examined as well as took her DNA samples,” Asmat Ullah, investigation officer of the gangrape case, told Voicepk.net. “We could not arrest the accused as they had secured pre-arrest bail till February 11,” he said. Asmat Ullah said presently the suspects were in their protective custody but they would be interrogated properly once their bail was cancelled.