Woman ‘sexually assaulted’ in Tandlianwala

Three brothers kidnapped a woman and one of them allegedly sexually assaulted her in Tandlianwala on Sunday.

Police registered a case against seven accused and started raids to arrest the suspects.

Sheeman Bibi, a resident of 420GB village on the outskirts of Tandlianwala, told police that her daughter, wife of Kashif, was alone in her house when the accused Bhola, his two brothers and other accomplices, including Lal, Yousuf Pasran Saeed, Abdul Gaffar and others, barged in and kidnapped her at gunpoint. The accused took her to an unknown place where the Bhola raped the woman while the rest of the accused kept guard, the complainant stated.

Police registered a case against the accused under sections 376 and 496 of Pakistan Penal Code and started raids to arrest them.

Incidents of sexual violence have been rampant across the province despite the authorities’ efforst to curb them.

On October 1, a woman was reportedly abducted from a bus stop near a police station and gang-raped in Nankana Sahib.

The woman, a resident of Sheikhupura, was standing at the bus stop when two men stopped their car, knocked her unconscious and abducted her. The woman was raped and dumped in fields afterwards, while the suspects fled from the scene.

On July 16, a man allegedly raped his 12-year-old cousin in Khara village, Kasur.

The complainant Muhammad Jamil, a resident of Mouza Khara, went out of his house for work and his wife Shazia Bibi also went to the fields to arrange fodder for the cattle.

Jamil’s daughter was at home when his nephew Zahid, who often came to his house, arrived there and raped his daughter, taking advantage of her being alone. The girl fainted after the assault.

The complainant alleged that a woman, Rubina Bibi, had also accompanied the accused Zahid and the rape took place in front of her.

On July 4, a man was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a four-year-old mentally challenged girl in Okara, while a seven-year-old escaped a rape attempt in a nearby village on the same day.

Reportedly, the accused lured the four-year-old daughter of Noor Ahmed, a resident of Sabir Piya Town, Okara, to a shop and sexually assaulted her. The victim was mentally challenged. Local people gathered on hearing screams of the child but the accused managed to escape.

(THE VICTIMS’ IDENTITIES HAVE NOT BEEN DISCLOSED AS A MATTER OF POLICY)

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2020.