Woman allegedly raped by suitor

A woman and two children were allegedly sexually abused in separate incidents on Wednesday. After registering cases, the police started raids to find the accused.

A resident of Karim Town Batala Colony, told police that her late husband’s friend Zulfikar used to visit her house. He came to the parlor setup in her house and proposed to her, which she refused. After three days, he called the victim and asked if she was at home, to which she said yes.

Zulfikar reportedly came to the house with two companions and demanded the victim leave with him. Upon her refusal, the accused drew a pistol and threatened to kill her two children. He then allegedly took her to the room and sexually assaulted her.

In a separate incident, a 16-year-old boy was allegedly lured and molested by the accused Waseem and Zaid in Chak 264 RB. In 129 Rab, Mudassar Nazir’s nephew was allegedly lured and molested by Ahmed and others. Separately in 563 A.B., Babu allegedly tried to molest Shazia Bibi’s son, but he foiled the attempt by making noise and calling for help.

This is not the first instance of sexual assault in the province. In April 2022, three men allegedly gang-raped a widow in Khurrianwala after luring her on the pretext of giving her a job.

According to the police report, in the case registered by the victim, it was stated that she was living in 203RB Mananwala because of her employment. The accused, Emad and Samar Ali, came to the victim’s house on March 23rd at 3 pm, offering her a job as a maid in their relative’s house. The victim agreed and left her house with the accused.

Instead of taking her to her new job, the accused took her to a house in Baowala, where an unidentified suspect was already present. They locked the door of the house and gang-raped the victim at gunpoint. According to the victim, they assaulted her one by one, hitting her with the butt of the pistol whenever she made noise.

Upon the filing of the victim’s report, Jhang Bazar police registered a case against the two named and one unknown accused and started raids to arrest them.

Similarly in January of this year, a gang-rape was reported in Gujjarpura, where the victim was lured by the suspects under the pretext of being offered a job.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2023.