Four booked for assaulting student

Victim was allegedly threatened with death if she failed to comply

HYDERABAD:

In the alleged sexual harassment of a student, the Nawabshah police have booked a director and three female officials of the nursing school where the victim was reportedly attacked.

Also, the Sindh health director general has initiated an inquiry into the matter. The women and children police station of Shaheed Benazirabad lodged an FIR under sections 324, 509, 506, 109 and 337 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the house job student P*.

Nawabshah Nursing School of Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women Director Dr Ghulam Mustafa Rajput and three unknown women officials have been charged in the case. According to Rind, the three women, who were wearing masks, reportedly entered the victim's hostel room at around 9am on February 9.

They began to strangle and beat the woman. The complainant alleged that those women warned her that if she did not fulfill the director's desire for a sexual relationship, she will be killed and her body will be found hanged from the ceiling fan of her hostel room.

However, she said she did not surrender to the unethical demand and took her complaint to the police, besides circulating a video recording of her statement against the director on social media. On Thursday, the students staged a sit-in outside Nawabshah Press Club. She was joined by hundreds of supporters from the civil society and local leaders of Pakistan Peoples Party.

One of her uncles is a local leader of PPP in her home district of Dadu. That uncle has been standing in her support, taking her to police stations and organising protests. Separately, the Sindh health minister also formed a three-member committee to look into the accusations of Rind.

Health Services Director General Sindh Dr Muhammad Juman Bahooto will head the committee which will have Dr Shahbuddin Qureshi and Dr Rukhsana Channar from the DG health office as members. The inquiry, which is supposed to be concluded and its report submitted in three days, will be conducted under the harassment act regulations.

The nursing students, during the protest on Thursday, said she believed that the females, who are often found dead in their hostel rooms, are actually killed after resisting the unethical demands of officials.