Teenage girl, woman ‘sexually assaulted’

Victims were lured by suspects on pretext of offering job

LAHORE/ KURIANWALA:

A teenage girl and a woman were allegedly sexually assaulted in separate incidents in Lahore and Khurrianwala on Saturday. Police registered cases and started searching for the suspects.

According to the police report, Irfan called a teenage girl on the pretext of giving her a job in someone's house from where the suspect took her in a car to a deserted place with an unknown accomplice and the two men raped her at gunpoint in the car.

Later the suspects left the girl on Canal Road and fled. Sargodha Road police have registered a case under section 376 of Pakistan Penal Code against the two suspects and started searching for them.

Separately, a suspect identified as Zohaib lured a woman standing at Lalak Jaan chowk in Lahore with her minor son. He asked her to go along with him for a job as a maid. The suspect along with his accomplices Moazzam Sajjad, Usman and Kaleem Ullah subjected her to sexual assault, the complainant stated.

Incidents of sexual violence against women and girls are rampant across the province. On January 21, it was revealed that a teenage girl became pregnant after allegedly being raped by unknown persons in Chak Jhumra. The 13-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by unknown persons who abandoned her when her condition deteriorated. As a result of the incident, the minor girl was diagnosed to be pregnant.

On January 18, a minor girl was sexually assaulted in Dijkot. The 10-year-old girl was abducted and raped by a motorcyclist in the Razaabad area. He later threw the girl unconscious near Lasani Bridge. The minor girl had left her home in the afternoon to buy vegetables. The motorcyclist lured her out of the way, abducted her and took her to an unknown location where he sexually assaulted her.

He later threw the girl unconscious in Sargodha Road area and fled.

On November 20 last year, three women including a teenage girl were sexually assaulted in Dijkot.

Reportedly, one of the victims was raped by her ex-husband. According to the police report, a resident of Amin Park Street, Razaabad was married to Muhammad Asif who divorced her in 2005.

On the day of the incident, the accused Asif called his ex-wife on the pretext of meeting his children at a friend’s house where the accused sexually assaulted her.

The accomplices of the alleged rapist, Rafiq and Mohammad Sadiq, kept guard while the assault took place. In Razaabad, Nadeem Ahmed, a resident of Kokianwala, and his wife were called by Faisal, a resident of Chak No 100GB, to his house.

The couple were on their way to collect money offered to them as loan when they were taken to a vacant house. The accused Faisal along with his accomplices locked Nadeem in a room and raped his wife.

Meanwhile, a 14-year-old daughter of Allah Ditta, a resident of Chak No 240RB, on Jaranwala Road, was raped by an unidentified man.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2021.