She had gone to a policeman to lodge a complaint against five men for raping her when the moharrar also took advantage of the 14-year-old. This is the story of Masooma Bibi* and she came forward to share more horrifying details and demand justice.
Masooma Bibi*, a fourteen-year-old from Andrasi, had earlier said Khush Niaz had raped her on August 11 in a maize field near her house. When she lodged an FIR at the Shinkiari police station, Moharrar Mushtaq registered her case before he too raped her.
Speaking to the media in Mansehra on Friday, Masooma relived her and her family’s protracted ordeal.
She said Niaz, also from Andrasi, would come to her house at night with Shafi, Noor, Javed and Gul while her father would be away for work. Masooma said the men would come over frequently to rape her sister-in-law Rehma Bibi* whose husband was away in Karachi for work.
“Whenever my mother tried to reason with them or tried to stop them, they would threaten to kill us all,” said Masooma. “Eventually, my mother managed to send Rehma to Karachi, but that was not the end of my ordeal.” The attention of the accused, said to be influential men, turned to the fourteen-year-old.
“They attempted to grab me several times on my school route but I would manage to escape,” said Masooma. “I told my parents who begged the men to not destroy my life but it fell on deaf ears and one day they raped me,” she added.
“They even made a video of their crime on the mobile phone and showed me the footage so they could blackmail me into letting them rape me again.”
Masooma said she was raped four times after the first time over the last two months.
“They threatened to show the video to the villagers if I ever spoke of what happened to me,” she said.
“I got pregnant in July, and Niaz forced me to swallow three pills.” The teenager started to cry as she narrated her ordeal. “I thought I was dying after as I started bleeding profusely.”
“When they were sure there was nothing to fear from my end, Niaz raped me again on August 11 and that’s when I decided to lodge a criminal case. But I never knew as a girl, I was not even safe at a police station which is meant to protect the life, honour and property of all citizens,” wept the young girl.
Masooma said after the mohrrar registered the FIR, he had telephoned to ask her to come to the station from where they would go to a hospital for her medical examination.
On August 19, when Masooma reached the station with her mother, Mushtaq took them in his own car but instead of the hospital, he took them to his house in Ghazi Township. He asked the girl’s mother to wait in the car, while he took Masooma inside, locked the door and allegedly raped her.
Mushtaq then threatened to botch up her earlier rape case if she made a fuss.
Later DPO Khurram Rasheed heard her ordeal and ordered the arrest of Mushtaq and a medical examination for the victim.
On August 20, Mushtaq was remanded into police custody for a day while Niaz and his accomplices have been released on bail.
Desperate for justice, Masooma has threatened to set herself on fire if Niaz, his accomplices and Mushtaq are not punished. She said since Niaz and his friends were influential men, they are still pressuring her family into dropping the case but, “I don’t trust anyone and will get justice.”
*Names have been changed to protect identities
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2014.
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