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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Protests broke out in several Pakistani cities on Saturday over the handling of an investigation into the gang rape of a mother traveling with her children on a highway, as police said they were launching a manhunt for the suspects. .
The woman, who police say is in her early 30s, was driving outside the eastern city of Lahore with her two children on Tuesday night when her vehicle ran out of fuel.
She called the police for help, but before they arrived, two men took her and her children out of the vehicle at gunpoint and raped her along the road.
Inam Ghani, inspector general for Punjab province, where the incident occurred, told reporters late Saturday that police had identified the two suspects through DNA tracing.
“I’m hopeful that we will catch up with them very soon and arrest them,” he said.
But the protesters are not satisfied and called for the dismissal of the chief police investigator assigned to the case, Omar Sheikh, who has repeatedly pointed out what he felt were mistakes made by the victim, so she should have made a different decision, more busy. highway, she didn’t travel at night, and she made sure her vehicle had enough fuel.
She also said that she seemed to get the impression that Pakistan was as safe for women as France, “her country of residence.” Requests for comment to the French Embassy in Islamabad received no response.
In Islamabad, several hundred protesters gathered, some waving French flags and others carrying signs reading “Hang the rapists.”
Hundreds, mostly women, also gathered in Lahore, Karachi and even in the conservative northwestern city of Peshawar. “Break the silence, stop the violence,” read a sign in Peshawar.
Global rights watchdogs have pointed out that Pakistan has not done enough to curb violence against women, including ensuring that perpetrators are held to account.
The attack has especially angered women who say public space in the ultra-conservative country was already limited. “And now the police tell her that she is responsible for her own safety,” Yamna Rehman said at the Islamabad protest.
The incident has sparked widespread outrage on social media.
(Reported by Umar Farooq in Islamabad and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; edited by Christina Fincher)
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