Woman lured through online platform, rapedd

Thousands of gender-based violence cases reported in Punjab in recent years

LAHORE:

Police have registered a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of a TikToker who leveled charges against a fellow user of the video-sharing application of luring her into his car for taking her onto a photo shoot and gang raping her with his friends.

The case was registered in Millat Park Police Station on Tuesday.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Investigations Zeeshan Asghar told The Express Tribune that he has taken notice of the incident and the police are conducting raids to arrest the suspects to investigate the matter further.

According to details, the complainant informed the police that she had befriended a boy named Sheraz on TikTok about three weeks ago and he asked to meet her two days back.

On July 13, the victim hired a rickshaw and went to meet Sheraz at the decided place behind a petrol station near Scheme Mor from her home in Sabzazar in the wee hours of the night.

She found Sheraz waiting for her along with his two friends, Asif and an unidentified youth, in the car. He asked her to accompany him in the car.

As soon as she sat in the car, the accused allegedly threatened her with a gun and asked her to refrain from making any noise if she wanted to live.

The complainant said the trio then molested her one by one and threw her outside the car in the morning and fled the scene.

The rape victim demanded arrest of the culprits. Police said they were thoroughly investigating the case.

Another case of rape was reported earlier by a woman who was assaulted in Defence B area of the provincial capital.

The victim said that she talked on the phone with the suspect identified as Sher Ali who asked her to visit him. When she went to meet the accused in the Punjab Industrial Estate area, he tortured and molested her.

Gang-rape victim blames cops for aiding her tormentors

Police have registered a case against the suspect.

Reportedly, the alleged rapist was arrested by the police some days later and the matter is being investigated further.

On Sunday, a man involved in torturing a minor domestic help was arrested by the police from Wapda Town.

Sources said, the suspect, Hammad, had employed 8-year-old Sana as a maid. For over one year, he subjected her to brutal torture on minor issues.

His neighbors called the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) claiming that the screams of the victim originating from Hammad’s house could be heard in the neighbouring houses nearly every other day.

When the victim was recovered by the Sattokatla Investigations Police, Sana had several marks of torture and burns on her body.

In another incident of violence and humiliation against women, a victim was paraded naked on a street of Gulberg-II by armed men after she rejected a marriage proposal.

Police said the woman was kidnapped by Waseem Masih, his brothers Nauman Masih and Sikandar Masih along with accomplices who stripped her and forced her to walk publicly on the road.

Waseem was disgruntled over her refusal to marry him.

Violence against women in Pakistan is a serious issue. The gender rights activists of an organisation, ‘Ribbon’, attribute patriarchy as the reason behind it.

There has been a public display of outrage against the injustices experienced by women on roads especially during the Aurat March for the last few years.

Over 70 rape cases reported in 2 months in Lahore

Violence against women in Pakistan is so rampant that every other day incidents of sexual and domestic abuse are reported in the media, the activists maintained.

According to a report of a non-government organisation (NGO), 4,734 cases of sexual violence were reported between 2004 and 2016.

At least 15,222 cases of honour crimes, 1,535 of burning, 1,843 of domestic violence and 5,508 cases of abduction were reported during the period in which women were victimised.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2020.