Streets not secure: In Morgah, power cuts a boon for criminals

Man arrested last Monday suspected of attacking women during power cuts

RAWALPINDI: A man suspected of attacking women in a relatively high-security area of Rawalpindi during power load-shedding was sent to Adiala Jail on judicial remand on Tuesday.

The man was arrested on charges of carrying out series of attacks on women in Kotha Kalan locality in Morgah.

Residents of the locality have claimed that an unidentified man armed either with a knife or a stitching awl, have been attacking women for the past two to three months.

Shakir Nazeer, a resident of the area, lodged a complaint with the police after his wife was attacked on 17th February.

He told the police that an unidentified man attacked his wife at about 8pm outside their house in Bareen area.

While narrating the incident, Nazeer told The Express Tribune over the phone that there were rumours that four to five women had so far been attacked in the last two months, creating fear and insecurity among residents.

Nazeer said that an unidentified man attacked his wife with an awl.

Nazeer, who was also a candidate for chairman of Kotha Kalan Union Council, said that the residents believed that the attacker was a psychopath or religious zealot and did not like women to leave their houses.

Responding to a question, Nazeer said that none of the victims had stated that the attacker engaged in any conversation with them before attacking them.

He said that the attacker would suddenly appear from the dark and attack a woman with an awl or a knife.

Nazeer said that all attacks took place in the area at the time of load-shedding, despite the fact that the police patrolled the area regularly.

He noted that in one incident, some local boys chased the attacker but could not catch him.

He said that the residents were not sure whether the arrested man was the attacker. The man, who is said to be a drug addict, had confessed to attacking the women, he claimed. “Fear of police torture could have led him to confess the crime,” he remarked.

SHO Malik Kausar, when contacted, said that the police had arrested Waqar alias Gulu on February 22, who confessed to his crime and had been sent to jail. The SHO added that the police had received two complaints of attacks on women so far.

The police, however, had been on high alert and continued patrolling the area in the evenings, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th,  2016.