Where art justice: Gang-rape victim killed for filing police complaint

Relatives claim police had asked for a bribe to arrest the accused.

FAISALABAD:

A woman who had claimed to have been gang-raped and blackmailed was shot dead allegedly by the rapists on Thursday night for filing a complaint against them with Samundri City police.

Police said Aisha Bibi* had been raped by five people who also made a video of the incident and had put it on the internet to humiliate her, police said.

She filed a complaint with the Samundri City police.

Muhammad Asfar, a relative of the victim, told media persons on Friday that the police had asked them for a bribe to arrest the accused. “We did not pay the bribe and the police did not arrest anyone.”

The accused had threatened the woman with dire consequences if she did not withdraw the case, he said. “When she did not withdraw her complaint, the rapists uploaded a video of the incident on the internet,” he said.

Aisha Bibi still refused to withdraw the complaint, he said. On Thursday night, the men shot her dead. Shafiq Akhtar, another relative, said, “The accused are very influential...the police are reluctant to arrest them.”

“The rapists had approached our family several times, through notables of the area, and pressured us to withdraw the complaint,” he said. “When we told the police that we were being threatened and that we needed security, we were told they couldn’t provide people security over such requests,” he said.

The Samundri City Station House Officer said, “The police have registered a case under Section 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (murder) on the complaint of the woman’s husband. We are looking for the suspects. A police team has been constituted to trace them. We hope to arrest them in two days.”

*Names have been changed to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2014.