A 35-year-old woman and her 15-year-old daughter were gangraped by a rickshaw driver and his accomplice in the Chung area in the early hours of Monday.
The resident of Vehari had reached Thokar Bypass by a bus along with her daughter to visit her sister living in a housing colony in Sadar Cantonment.
At around 10pm, she booked a rickshaw to reach her sister’s home. However, the diver and his accomplice took them towards a deserted place along the LDA Avenue instead of driving them to their destination.
The woman told the police that the suspects took them to an empty plot of land and subjected both of them to sexual assault.
“The suspects strangulated us when we attempted to cry for help,” she added.
Meanwhile, a car stopped nearby. On seeing the lights of the vehicle, the victims shouted for help, forcing the assaulters to flee while leaving their rickshaw at the spot.
Read Woman allegedly gang-raped
Addressing a press conference, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar drew an analogy of the incident with the Gujjarpura Motorway gang-rape case.
He announced that both the suspects had been arrested within a few hours after the incident. The official said the driver identified as Umar Farooq and his accomplice Mansab Ali had taken the woman and her daughter to a deserted plot near LDA Avenue instead of taking them to Saddar and raped both of them.
The suspects strangulated the victims and threatened them to keep quiet during their assault, he added.
The CCPO said the suspects had also snatched Rs5,000 and a mobile phone from the victims. The suspects fled from the scene upon the arrival of a car, leaving their rickshaw on the spot.
The woman called police helpline number 15, after which Chung police registered a case and started investigation.
Dogar said that prime suspect Umar was arrested early in the morning and his accomplice Mansab was apprehended by noon.
The suspects were shifted to Kotwali CIA office for further investigation. The CCPO said the incident could have led to hype similar to the motorway gang-rape case, but Lahore police had succeeded in solving it in record time and arresting the suspects.
Habitual offender
The suspect Umar has previous record of nomination in rape cases in Nawab Town and Haveli Lakha police station in Okara district.
He was booked in a sexual assault case for the first time in 2018. However, within a few months, he managed to get released.
Read more Young girl ‘gang-raped’ in Thikriwala
After his release in 2019, he was booked in another sexual assault case registered in April last year in Nawab Town police station.
The complainant told the police that the suspect had lured her on the pretext of getting her free ration from a nearby outhouse. However, he forcibly took her to fields near Abdul Sattar Edhi Road and attempted to rape her.
However, he fled when the woman cried for help and people gathered at the spot.
More harassment cases
While Lahore police were busy in tracking down the suspects in the Greater Iqbal Park incident, misbehaviour with a woman travelling in a rickshaw on Ravi Road and the Chung gang rape, two more cases of sexual harassment were reported in the provincial capital.
An employee of Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), identified as Farhan, was booked for misbehaving, sexually harassing and hurling abuses at female patients and their attendants in the hospital.
A case was registered against him in Shadman police station and he was put behind bars. The other case was reported in Factory Area, where a man openly hurled threats and abuses on a woman on a main road after she asked him to stop harassing her.
The suspect, identified as Waqas, was reportedly making indecent gestures and remarks when the woman confronted him.
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