Women stabbed while shopping. PHOTO: FILE
The Sahiwal district police officer has announced a Rs200,000 cash prize for anyone who helps the police arrest the people who have been stabbing women in shopping areas.
On Saturday, DPO Syed Khurram Ali had suspended Cheechawatni Station House Officer Abid Hussain from service for failing to arrest the gang members. The SHO had been given four days to track the suspects.
The DPO said that a criminal gang had recently surfaced in Cheechawatni. He said the gang members stabbed women “for leaving their houses after sunset”. He said most of the women were attacked in shopping areas.
Police said at least 25 cases had been reported in October so far. In most cases, they said, the victims were accompanied by brothers and husbands waiting in the parking area while they went shopping.
Dr Asim Nawaz at the tehsil headquarters hospital told The Express Tribune that two to three women were being brought to the hospital every day since October 6. He said most of them had been stabbed in the shoulders, back and arms. Some had also been attacked on their faces.
He said four women were brought to the hospital on Saturday. Three of them were referred to the district headquarters hospital in Sahiwal.
One of the injured woman, who did not want to disclose her identity, told The Express Tribune that a masked man stopped her and asked why she was out in the market unaccompanied. She said she ignored him and walked away but he stabbed her in the shoulder.
The DPO said the incidents had caused alarm among residents, who were not allowing their women to leave home or go shopping on their own.
He said they had also led to low attendance at girls’ schools and colleges. He said some working women had requested the police for deployment at major roads.
He said most cases had been reported from Ahmed Nagar, Ali Town, Block No 10, Block No 19, Kamalia Road, and Gyarawala Mor. He said the victims had not been robbed.
He said the injured women had told police that the assailants had told them that they were not allowed to leave their homes and that “it was against the Sharia law for women to go shopping”.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 28th, 2013.
COMMENTS (35)
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i am also living in chichawatni block no 10 street no 6 its a tottaly wrong information...
@Tamur:
"Likewise, in Saudi Arabia driving is banned for women based on misinterpretations of Shariah law,which is now being protested by Saudi women as there is no basis in Islam for women to be banned from driving or even conducting business." Interpretation of sharia or Hadith is being done which serves the vested interest of the persons/ organisations/ rulers at the top.. 1400 years ago car/ vehicles were not invented. how can any guideline in Sharia / hadith be applicable on driving of car by women?
I guess the real problem is our weak Imaan. We get easily blackmailed in the name of religion. Look at some of the insane comments. Just because the attackers invoked the cause of Sharia, we subconsciously started making excuses and rationalizing the brutal attacks. No one (including me) has the courage to say that if such behavior can be supported or condoned in the name of ISLAM, then I dont want to be part of it.
Give them a country and they make a mess of it. And they want kashmir on top of it.
@ The Failed Rebel: Your comments are logical. This is all fabricated. But our "cute" nation wont understand it at all.
This is not vigilante violence as vigilante implies the failure of the authorities to capture and/or punish this barbaric maniac. The title suggests that these women are the ones who did not follow the law. According to some (barbaric) commentators that is precisely what these women did by going shopping without their guardian. Thank you KSA.
@Tamur: You are one good soul. I am really happy to see good muslims like you coming forward. My respects to you.
@asad: @Lt Col Imtiaz Alam(retd): @Don: Nobody actually reads carefully it seems. The application of Shariah law is based on human interpretation of Allah's Law. Unfortunately, there are humans naive enough to apply it in a barbaric manner. If you read the article carefully, it is the assilants who have claimed that women shopping alone is against Shariah. Likewise, in Saudi Arabia driving is banned for women based on misinterpretations of Shariah law, which is now being protested by Saudi women as there is no basis in Islam for women to be banned from driving or even conducting business. Just taking a word out of context can mean a different thing to different people unless the full story behind it is understood. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, many people are doing just that.
@rome: don't assume, prove it that they were wearing indecent clothes or not accompanied by brothers or husbands. Have u ever thought about those who do not have a brother and the father is ill. Don't be so narrow minded. Islam or sharia is not the problem. Its the bigotry, narrow minded interpretation that creats problem.
another day in pakistan and people keep living on their lives, unfazed because it did not happen to anyone they knew
@Javeed:::Though it is very sad to read your genuine concern about your family,but looking at the state of affairs I can not but agree with you.If you can,then go ahead,do it,waste no more time.Auriaa,Ansaar and their likes are not going to leave here
Surprised that everyone here is making Hina a scapegoat when our Mullahs and Taliban are making a mockery of Islam and spreading lies in the name of Islam. No one criticises them. In a country where killers and terrorists like Osama bin laden, Qadri are celebrated as heros, what kind of Islam is that? If anyone can show that women are not allowed to shop or drive in Sharia law, I would be really thrilled. Islam brought women out man's slavery in 7 th century yet in the 21 st century women are being pushed back into slavery in the name of Islam.
Why should any women be forced to do some thing that they dont want and is not commanded by Allah, nor was enforced by his messenger Peace be upon him.
Seal all Wahabbi madressahs, problem solved !
@rome: Read you comment and observe the senseless words that you typed! Why should women be accompanied by a male everytime? Do not impose the self-created laws in the name of Islam. Instead of addressing the problem of safety of women, you are running from it. Shame!
@Hina ... For your kind information As per Sharia, No one - I repeat - No one can stab women whether they're out shopping or sitting at home. Please learn/think before opening your mouth/typing.
@Rome ... Some of the women WERE actually with a male member of their household - Ask your mum, dad, a sibling, or wife etc to help you read articles. Putting the index finger below the words/sentences will help. Also, you seem to imply that any woman not attired 'decently' as you put it 'may' be stabbed. Huh?
@Hina: Let me tell you something.
If a child can't understand chemistry, it doesn't mean that the chemistry is wrong. Same is the analogy for Islam, if you can't understand the laws of Islam doesn't mean that these laws are incorrect. Apart from that, these Islamic laws are the very things that Muslim female victims bring out when there is some rape case or something similar to this happens to them. Also to mention, You don't know anything about Islam thats why you are talking like this. Had you known anything about Islam, you would have never spoken like this about Islam.
PS: "First Learn Islam, then Analyse it, and finally then give your judgement about this pure religion of Islam."
@Hina, this has nothing to do with Shariah. Shariah does not allow people to go around stabbing people. These shaitan people and devils only trying to defame Shariah. I humbly request you as a brother in faith to repent and not utter words that might be tantamount to kufr
actually kinda express tribune hasn't reported this news..... i donno how correct it is but read this.... http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/girl-buried-alive-after-rape-in-pakistan_886474.html
@Hina: You are referring to Allah's Law as Barbaric. Do not tempt Providence.
Oh my God! I am very worried about my family four sisters and mother staying back in Okara city.My father died 7 years ago. In my family in Okara we don't have any male to go for shopping with my sisters. Ten years before I came to Germany and I settled here after marriage with German girl. Now I am very upset after reading that news. I am going to apply visa for my rest of family. Thanks ET to report theses incidents.
What evil book they studied to stab innocent women and children? What will we do if complete fruit is rotten?
My people, do you not see through this? There is absolutely no version of Shariah which allows such horrendous actions. These attacks are solely being done to bring a bad name to Shariah. Do you not think that if these men wanted they could have simply slit the throats and ran away? No. They had a dialogue and they mentioned the name of Shariah, very clearly. These events are occurring only and only to sabotage formal talks with Taliban, bringing them to table, and eventually disbanding their violent elements. Do not be misled, what I say is no conspiracy theory, it is only the vision of seeing through the intention of such actions.
Only this thing can happen in Pakistan because there is no respect for women where is the police what a backward country
its been happening since oct 6 and media gets to know about this after a month.. wow.... pak media is more bothered abt spreading propaganda against RAW,CIA and MOSSAD...i guess....these things dont matter anyway..... :)
Ha! cowards. Stabbing women and running away.
The fruits of indoctrination are being manifest in strange and multiple ways.
what do you expect when you appease terrorist animals like the taliban through dialogue offer. This only emboldens them. Now they will say when there is a hue and cry that this is a indian sazish or a jewish sazish. PTI and Imran Khan will say it is because of drones. Maulvis will say it is allowed. Pakistan is a Sick country to live in. Should be renamed to gandistan and the whole worlds sick minds have gathered here.
why dont we talk to these people, may be they will understand. shahbaz sharif please ask them to stop this on "humanitarian grounds".
Exactly my sentiments.... Its a result of extremism and people like Ansaar and Orya, the true and real enemies of muslims and Islam
Hina: obviously you dont have a clue abt the sharia. No one is listening to you anyway. the solution is not to dismiss the station house officer either. And why cant these women just be accompanied by their husband or Brothers, whats the big deal. probably these women does not Wear clothes decently also.
The taliban cancer has made its way into the Pakistani heartland. How is it that 25 women have been stabbed in such few days and no one had to courage to apprehend the assailant in a busy marketplace? Police should depute plainclothes police to put an end to this nonsense.
There are many cases where people have lost their ability to think rationally after being brain washed. This certainly is one of them.
Oh my God,,this will happen when so called writers like Orya Maqbool and Ansar Abbasi will come on different channels and promote so called Barbaric Sharia law..Jahail Danishwar of so called Islamic Democratic country.