Updated: September 12, 2020 1:26:01 pm
Supporter of the religious group ‘Jamaat-e-Islami’ participates in a demonstration to condemn the rape incident, in Karachi. (AP)
Protests have erupted in Pakistani cities after a police chief investigating the gang rape of a woman on a major national highway on Thursday appeared to blame the victim for traveling late at night without a male partner. So far, Pakistani police have arrested 15 people in connection with the incident, AFP reported.
The woman was attacked in the early hours of Thursday after her car broke down on the Lahore-Sialkot highway, while driving from Lahore to Gujranwala with her two children. In her statement to police, the woman said she was waiting for help to arrive when a group of men broke her window, pulled her out of the car and raped her in front of her children in a nearby field, The Guardian reported.
His assailants then fled the scene, taking his jewelry, cash, and three ATM cards. While Pakistani police have detained 15 people for questioning, none of the detainees were part of the group that attacked her, police told the Associated Press.
Lahore Police Chief’s Comments Spawn Outrage
Hundreds of people took to the streets on Friday after Lahore Police Chief Umar Sheikh, the lead investigator on the case, reprimanded the woman for driving on the highway late at night without a man accompanying her.
He added that no one in Pakistani society “would allow their sisters and daughters to travel alone until this late.” Given that the victim is a resident of France, Sheikh suggested that he “mistook that Pakistani society is just as safe,” The Guardian reported.
His comments were widely condemned and prompted demands for his immediate resignation. Pakistan’s Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari called her comments “unacceptable.” “Nothing can ever rationalize the crime of rape,” he said.
Supporters of the religious group ‘Jamaat-e-Islami, carry a banner that reads “Perpetrators of atrocities against women and children must be hanged in public” during a demonstration in Lahore. (AP)
“It is unacceptable for an officer to blame a woman for being abused saying that she should have taken the GT Road or asking why she went out at night with her children and broached this issue,” Mazari tweeted.
Lawyer and women’s rights activist Khadija Siddiqi told AFP that Sheikh’s response to the case was an unfortunate manifestation of the “very unbridled” culture of blaming victims in the country.
Pakistan’s main opposition party, PML-N, also called for Sheikh’s resignation on Friday, local media reported. Meanwhile, the main opposition senator Jamaat-i-Islami, Sirajul Haq, gave the government a 48-hour ultimatum to present those guilty of the crime, PTI reported.
A supporter of the religious group ‘Jamaat-e-Islami participates in a demonstration to condemn the rape incident. (AP)
Prime Minister Imran Khan says he is ‘closely following the case’
Condemning the brutal attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote in a statement on Twitter that he was closely following the case and had ordered investigators to arrest and convict those involved in the incident “as soon as possible,” it reported. Reuters.
Khan added that his government will work to strengthen laws to address the threat posed by an increase in rape cases involving women and children in recent years.
Earlier this year, Pakistani lawmakers passed a bill calling for the public hanging of all those convicted of sexual abuse and murder of children.
In her statement to police, the woman said she was waiting for help to arrive when a group of men broke her window, pulled her out of the car and raped her in front of her children in a nearby field, The Guardian reported. (AP)
Special protection forces deployed on the road after the attack
After facing widespread criticism over the lack of security on the newly built Lahore-Sialkot highway, Punjab Police Inspector General Inam Ghani deployed highway patrols and special protection personnel to guard the road on Friday, the Pakistani newspaper reported. Dawn.
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