Rape: 17-year-old gang-rape victim demands justice

MLO deliberately terms rape victim virgin and the police refuses to register FIR.

KARACHI: Seventeen-year-old gang-rape victim, A, demanded justice from the higher authorities after she was deliberately termed a ‘virgin’ by a medico-legal officer and the police refused to register an FIR against the accused.

Speaking to the media at the Madadgar Helpline Office on Saturday, A said that her neighbour Dhani Bux asked her to come over to his house on the pretext of showing his newborn baby.

However, when they reached his house, his two aides, Bu-Ali and Sher Ali were waiting to overpower and rape A. “They abused my father, my brothers and also beat me up” said A.

The victim belongs to a poor peasant family of Jhaddo, Mirpurkhas and her father Muhammad Khoso said that the police at the Jhaddo police station refused to register an FIR against the accused and said “we will not register your FIR as you have consulted the Jirga”. Later on the police asked for the medical report to register an FIR.

However, the medical report issued by a female medico-legal officer at Taluka Hospital Jhaddo, Dr Shahnaz Talpur termed the victim a virgin.

“After the fake medical report the police refused to take any action against the accused and threatened us of dire consequences if we filed a case against the accused in the court” said Khoso. He added that the jirga decided that A should be married to the accused Bu-Ali and in return his sister should be given to my son after twelve days but they refused to act on the jirga’s decision. Madadgaar Project Coordinator Zia Ahmed Awan, said that a local journalist Zar Nageen brought the victim to the Madadgaar office.

Awan informed that on his request Director General Health Sindh Dr Sarwar Channa formed a high-level medical board for the medical examination of the victim.  “On January 5, 2011, after thorough examination of the victim the medical board at Civil hospital confirmed that the victim was not a virgin” said Awan.

He condemned the medico-legal departments and said that these departments are often packed with incompetent and corrupt people and the fake medical legal report of Aasia Khoso is evidence of the abused practice.

“Despite the ban on jirgas by the Supreme Court and Sindh High Court people hold jirgas and play with human lives,” said Awan while taking about the jirga.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2011.