18-year-old married girl blackmailed, gang-raped in Khanpur

In yet another case of sexual violence against women, an 18-year-old girl was first abducted and then gang-raped after being blackmailed over an "indecent" video in Punjab’s Khanpur on Saturday.

The victim told authorities that four men identified as Tauqir, Kala alias Haji, Mumtaz and Fida Hussain recorded an ‘inappropriate’ video of her. She claimed that the ‘culprits' started blackmailing her and demanded Rs90,000 to delete the footage.

In the police complaint, she stated that upon reaching the spot to handover the money, she was abducted and then sexually assaulted for seven days. The girl was then dumped in a field and the suspects fled from the scene.

The police said that a case has been registered against the accused but no arrests have been made so far.

Sexual violence against women is on the rise in the country with several cases reported on a daily basis while others go unnoticed.

Earlier this week, a woman was abducted from a bus stop near a police station – and gang-raped in Nankana Sahib district.

The woman, a resident of Sheikhupura, was standing at a bus stop when two persons stopped their car, knocked her unconscious and abducted her.

On Wednesday, a young girl, who was gang-raped in Tharparkar 14 months ago, allegedly committed suicide, reportedly in response to pressure on her family to withdraw the rape case.

The girl’s father told the local media that the family was under immense pressure from the accused to withdraw the case. “Our lives were under threat by these influential persons,” he stated.

These incidents took place weeks after a mother was sexually assaulted in front of her children when her car ran out of fuel at Lahore-Sialkot motorway, an incident which shocked the entire nation and triggered outrage last month.

A case was registered and over two dozen police teams were deputed to trace and arrest the culprits.

One accused of the case Waqarul Hassan, later, surrendered to the police but denied his involvement in the heinous act.

However, the prime suspect of the case Abid Ali still remains at large while the police were trying to trace his whereabouts.