Abettor acquitted: District court upholds sentences of gang rape convicts

Victim was returning home from exam centre when she was lured into a car and raped

MANSEHRA: The Court of District Judge upheld the sentences of three men convicted in a gang rape case, but a woman previously accused of abetting them had her sentence overturned by the court.

According to Advocate Mustafa Khan counsel for the victim P*, 17, a Mansehra sessions judge had on Tuesday decided the appeal after hearing arguments from both sides. The court upheld the original sentence of 14 years rigorous imprisonment and Rs100,000 fine for the accused Qari Naseer and Faizan, and five years jail and Rs 20,000 fine for the third convict, Hussain Mushtaq.

He said that the court had acquitted Anam Saleem, a friend of the victim who was accused of abetting them. He added that Mushtaq was arrested from the courtroom as the Peshawar High Court had granted him bail pending a decision on his appeal.

According to the prosecution record, the criminal case was registered at Mansehra City Police Station on May 13, 2014 under section 376 (2) of the PPC and ATA sections 6 and 7. It stated that P was an Intermediate student at a school in Mohallah Dab No 2. Since her school was not a declared examination centre, all the students were sitting exams at Sky International School, which is at a distance from her locality.

On May 13, 2014, she was on her way back home with her classmate and friend Saleem. When they came out of school her friend Anam suggested that the victim accompanies her on a joyride with her fiance.

Initially, she resisted but was persuaded to get into a van with black tinted windows on Karakoram Highway.

According to the victim’s statement, there were two unidentified men sitting in the front and at some point, they turned the car towards Balakot Road.

After some distance, they moved on to Qalandarabad after spotting a police picket ahead of them. Naseer, who at that time was running a seminary in Dharmian village, then raped her in the moving car.

The other rapist got on the van near Qalandarabad and also raped the victim before the two girls were dropped off near Ghazikot Township the same evening.

The victim informed her parents, who arrived with a police party. The police arrested the principal accused, Qari Naseer, while he was fleeing from Haripur, while Faizan, Anam and Hussain were arrested from their homes. The medical examination of the girl had proved the assault.

When the case was heard by an Abbottabad Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) had on March 5, 2015, the judge awarded 14 years rigorous imprisonment each to Qari Naseer and Faizan, while 5 years jail sentence to Hussain Mushtaq while their co-accused Anam Saleem was acquitted giving the benefit of the doubt. The convicts then moved the Peshawar High Court, which removed the terrorism charges from the FIR, and Hussain Mushtaq was granted bail .

*Name withheld to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2017.