Gang rape: Woman twice abducted and raped by the same men

Tooba is pregnant from rape, says the men still roam free.

SIALKOT:

A woman who was abducted and gang raped for the second time by four armed accused two months ago is now pregnant. According to police officials, the accused had abducted the victim as punishment for her getting an annulment through a local court in Gopipur-Satrah, Daska. The victim has now complained that the men who raped her have still not been arrested and she has been receiving death threats.

According to police officials, Gopipur resident Tooba Shams had been kidnapped at gunpoint eleven months ago by four landlords and raped. “The men got her to sign blank papers and later tried to seize her property. The papers included a marriage contract and property transfer documents but she had the ‘marriage’ annulled,” said district police officer (DPO) Bilal Sadiq Kamiyana.

According to the original FIR lodged with the Satrah police station under Section 376-II, Tooba was abducted by four landlords Nadeem Mughal, Rana Bilal, Amir Shafi and Muhammad Sadiq while she was going to a local religious seminary in the village eleven months ago. “She recorded a statement saying that the accused took her to a warehouse and gang raped her for a month.

She finally managed to escape them one night and sought protection with a Darul Aman. Then she filed a case with the police and a case for the annulment of the marriage with the courts,” the DPO said.

Inspector Farooq Shah said that Tooba had also submitted a medical test proving that she had been gang raped. “She was also severely injured and malnourished,” he said.

The FIR stated that a local court in Daska had dissolved the ‘marriage’ with accused Nadeem Mughal on May 18, 2011. Tooba had said that she and her mother were standing on a local bus stop at village Gopipur headed for Gujranwala on July 6, 2011, when the accused kidnapped her again and took her to Pasrur, where they gang raped her for three days as punishment for annulling the marriage. “Nadeem told me that I was being punished again because I had thwarted his plans by annulling the marriage. Now I am pregnant with my rapist’s baby and he still hasn’t been arrested,” Tooba said. “The police have registered a case but the accused haven’t been arrested. The courts have granted my divorce but these men are still roaming free. What good is a divorce if they are free to kill me?” Tooba said.

Speaking to reporters, Tooba said that the accused were influential and were still at large in the village. She alleged that the Satrah police was reluctant to arrest the men because they had political backing. She appealed to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Inspector General of Police Punjab, Gujranwala Regional Police Officer Ahmed Mubarak Ahmed and DPO Sialkot Bilal Sadiq Kamiyana to provide her with justice. PPI

All names have been changed to protect the identity of the victim

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2011.