Victim gets jail term for concealing rape
A rape victim has been sentenced to six months in prison for ‘concealing’ the incident involving her own son-in-law in a remote village of northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.
The district and sessions court in Ghakuch Valley, the headquarters for Ghizer district and about 80 kilometres from Gilgit, also handed down a 15-year imprisonment to the rapist.
Local police has confirmed that the man is in their custody.
The case came to the police knowledge after the victim gave birth to a baby in a local hospital. She revealed during the course of investigation that she had been raped by her son-in-law Liaqat Ali, a businessman from Mansehra district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
She said that the rapist had bullied her into silence. “He had threatened to kill my family if I disclosed the incident.
“I had no option but to keep my mouth shut,” a source quoted her as telling the investigators.
Following her statement, the police registered the case and proceeded with legal action.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 12th, 2011.
COMMENTS (23)
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@kaalchakra: Two things: 1. A rape victim is a victim, she may choose to not report the crime because it can lead to worse things. Your legislation is such that a rape victim can even end up in jail herself. She may also need to try to protect the rest of her family 2. You mentioned about raping a muslim woman. Do you mean that it is a different thing raping a muslim women compared with raping a christian, hindu or buddhist woman?
this case should be go in civil society through journalist and nationalist. other wise no insurance by judicially.
The govt. must not let the culprit to find safe place in other part of the country. The women must be served justice. Its a sad news indeed, in a place that is the most peaceful land in Pakistan.
"Justice" was blind in all grammatical forms; proper noun, common noun, verb, adverb etc etc. Even a blind can see that!
@kaalchakra,
I don't know what led you to choose your handle, whether deep knowledge or the supreme irony of fate. From your insane Islamist comments, I should suspect the latter. Otherwise, have you ever read the KALACHAKRA TANTRA closely, with all the nuances intact? I don't think you would have picked quite this moniker, if you had!!!
Human, Leila, Nurmo
All of you are right in that Allah will judge people based on intentions, but the rest of us can only work with the knowledge that Allah grants us. Can a person get away by saying that he raped a Muslim woman with 'good intentions'? No, no, no. Every criminal commits crime with 'good intentions' on their part. Allah will be the judge in eternal life. Here each crime must be punished given the information we have.
Did she hide the crime for good intentions or bad intentions? If you ask her, her answer would be obvious. But the society has to make its own judgements. They have to see wider implications for all Muslims.
@shoaib sultan Muslim country,Muslim police, Muslim judge. Then what's the problem.You lack religious education to understand the conviction of the rape victim.
Kaalchakra: First of all, a persons actions are judged by their intentions. Did the woman hide what had been done to her because she was a evil person intent on spreading sex crimes? NO! the woman kept quiet because she was afraid of her rapist, of what the whole community would say, what her family would say, and because of the uselessness of our authorities.
Clearly it isnt the woman's fault that she was too afraid to speak up. Its the fault of the authorities which have allowed such an atmosphere of fear and repression to spread like a virus and consume us all. If she knew she'd be protected and get justice, she would undoubtedly have spoken up.
@kaalchakra... ur as crazy as the police/judge.... if she was conspiring to aid/abet the rapist and not help bring justice to the victim, then she might be in fault... esp if with her connivance the rape took place... but when she is the victim herself? no, no and no! Hello supreme court/high court! suo moto, anyone? now wud be a good time!
Instead of blindly criticizing the well-thought out judgement, we should try to understand why Allah doesn't allow anyone to go scot free when they commit a crime. Allah is very hard on rape, specially when the raped woman is a Muslim, but he is also harsh on liers. If every 'victim' hid the crimes of which he or she had knowledge, the whole society will collapse.
From Indonesia to KSA, rape victim is always punished. And rapist is the he-man.
No wonder officially you have so 'few' rapes in Pakistan! Who will report a rape if you end up in jail for being raped? Pakistanis can happily claim their country is 'safe' for women!
She followed Jamaai Islami's ameer Syed Munawar Hasan's advice of keeping quiet instead of pursuing the case (which according to his Islamic knowledge equals to 'spreading fahashi'). Still she gets punished. Now what will the ameer recommend on this? That she should kill herself?
Wow -- and you wonder why the World thinks poorly of Pakistan.
punishing the rape victim was in the hudood ordinance which were the islamic laws amended in musharraf's time.the religious laws don't make a difference between consentual sex and rape and the woman gets blamed and persecuted along with the rapist.
Are they in their sense? Rape victim was threatened so she kept silent; this happens in almost 95 percent of rape cases
are our courts crazy? you arrest the victim? idiotic
Well Done JUDGES & POLICE.
why is a rape victim being punished? what is wrong with our society? we are persecuting the victims now.she should have been given protection and society's support ,not a jail sentence.this is barbaric and any law that states that you have to 'punish' a rape victim should be taken off our law books.it doesn't deserve to be called a 'law' if it is savage and absurd enough to jail the victim.