Sexual slavery: ‘Cancel bail of rape, abduction perpetrators’

Complainant says she has been rendered disabled by two years of abuse.

LAHORE:

A woman has moved a bail-cancellation plea for five people who she says kidnapped her, raped her repeatedly for two years, broke her knees and rendered her unable to walk.

District and Sessions Judge Mujahid Mustaqeem Ahmed has referred the woman’s petition to Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Ramazan. The petitioner has asked the court to cancel the pre-arrest bail granted to Shehnaz Bibi, Abdushakoor, Haider, Jamshaid and Javed in a case registered against them by Naseerabad police under Sections 496/A (abduction) and 376 (rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code

The petitioner stated that after she had registered a complaint with Nasserabad police, the accused abducted her in connivance with the police and threatened to kill her if she did not make favourable statements to a judge so that they could get pre-arrest bail.

The complainant said that her ordeal began when Shehnaz Bibi told her she had arranged a job for her as a maid in Makka Colony and took her to a house there. She said she was kept hostage at the house for two years, during which she was repeatedly raped. They forced her to put her thumb print to a nikah nama [marriage deed]. She said the accused tried to turn her into a prostitute, but she refused, at which point they tortured her by breaking her knee caps. She said the neighbours heard her cries and rushed in to help her. She then registered a complaint at Naseerabad police station.

She said the accused later kidnapped her again and coerced her into making a favourable statement before a judge so they could get pre-arrest bail. She asked the court to cancel their bail. Mirza Shaukat, the petitioner’s lawyer, told The Express Tribune that the police had taken his client with them to get a medical exam when she was abducted on the second occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2012.