Rape victim commits suicide outside police station

Victim approached the city prison to lodge a complaint but ASI Noor Hussain refused to register the case

MULTAN:

A young woman set herself on fire on Tuesday to protest police’s refusal to register a case against her alleged rapists. The 20-year-old woman, *S, resident of Deen Pur village in the impoverished Muzaffargarh district of Punjab, committed self-immolation in front of the city prison.

Relatives said the woman had gone to the house of a close relative, Qayyum Dasti, where she was allegedly gang-raped by Dasti and his friends.

The distraught woman approached the City prison to lodge a complaint but ASI Noor Hussain allegedly refused to register the case. Disillusioned by the apathetic attitude of the police, the woman doused herself with petrol and set herself on fire outside the police station.

Critically injured, the woman was rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital where medics said that she had received 80% burn injuries. She expired during the course of treatment.

*The victim’s name has been changed to protect her identity

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2015.