Earlier in the week, a Christian man was injured in Sargodha by a violent mob, while his house and factory were set on fire on allegations of blasphemy. While police were able to control the situation before it spiralled out of control, the situation was reminiscent of Jaranwala riots for many people.
Miss Universe Pakistan 2023 Erica Robin and Pakistani actor Mashal Khan have talked about the attempted lynching, asking authorities to protect minority rights.
Robin posted a powerful message on her Instagram about how minorities in Pakistan face difficulties and why things must change. She said, “It’s sad that minorities in Pakistan aren’t treated the same as the majority. If it wasn’t for the votes of minorities in 1947, Pakistan wouldn’t be here today.
Even Quaid-e-Azam recognized that minorities played a big part in making Pakistan. But what’s happening in Pakistan now is terrible and has been happening for a long time.”
Robin spoke up after the terrible attack in Sargodha, saying that this isn’t just one incident. She said, “The recent sad event in Sargodha, where an innocent person was killed, shows how minorities are treated badly. This isn’t the only time it’s happened; there have been other incidents like the Gojra riots, where Ahmadis were targeted, and attacks on Hindu and Christian communities for many years.”
She also talked about how Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are sometimes used unfairly against minorities. She said, “The blasphemy law in Pakistan has been used unfairly against minorities many times. Most Pakistanis need to speak up and say we should get rid of this law. Minorities are a big part of our country and deserve to be treated fairly and protected.” Robin also shared her love for Pakistan and her hope for things to get better. “We care about our country and are an important part of it. It’s time for things to change.”
Mashal also used Instagram to speak out against the attacks and highlight the important role minorities played in Pakistan’s history. “I keep having to say the same thing over and over. Minorities helped build Pakistan, and it was meant to protect them too. Muslims were a minority before Pakistan was made and faced hate because of their religion. We can’t let this keep happening in our own country,” Mashal said. The Suno Chanda actor added, “If we let these terrible people get away with this, they’ll feel more powerful. We need to stand up for minorities.”
The victim, Nazir Gill, was critically injured despite police saving his life. He’s being treated at a hospital. When the angry mob attacked, they wrecked Nazir Gill’s house and factory. Scared, many Christian people ran away from their homes, some taking shelter in churches nearby.
An Indian politician, who sexually assaulted 400 women and made videos of them, has escaped to Germany. He’s accused of exploiting and making videos of women over many years.
Parjwal Revana is a member of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coalition party and the grandson of former Indian Prime Minister HD Devarajegowda, according to Indian media.
According to media reports, Parjwal allegedly filmed 2,800 videos, of 400 women being raped, 2,000 USB sticks of rape videos were found in parks, buses and trains across the state of Karnataka and the rape videos were leaked by the former driver of Prajwal Revanna. These videos were used by the member of the parliament to blackmail women and gain sexual favours from them.
While Prajwal has escaped, his father has been arrested on the charge of sexual violence against a maid. The girl who worked at Parjwal’s house complained to the police about the rape and she also accused Prajwal’s father of sexual assault.
A former Bangalore councilor has also accused Prajwal of raping her several times.
Indian politician and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that this is not a sex scandal but a serious case of mass rape.
Modi has campaigned for Prajwal in the elections but in his statement has said, “It is a law and order issue. If such an incident took place in Bengal, then the Bengal government of would be responsible. If it happened in Gujarat, then the Gujarat government is responsible…if it happened in Karnataka, then the Karnataka government is responsible to take action.”
A Rawalpindi native, identified as Riaz Shah tortured his widow sister-in-law and her daughters along with other accomplices by attacking them with shovels. The incident occured in Sher Zaman Colony of the Garrison City.
SSP Operations Kamran Asghar has that the suspect Riaz Shah is the brother-in-law of the victim. A house dispute erupted between the two parties when the suspect asked for a share while the house is in the name of the late husband of the victim, reports Geo News.
Riaz Shah has been arrested and a case has been registered.
Taking notice of the incident, Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz has asked for immediate action against the accused. While seeking a report from police authorities, she has said that violence against women is not going to be tolerated.
SSP Operations Kamran Asghar and other police officers also visited the house of the victim’s family and inquired about their well-being. They sought information about the incident and assured them of cooperation.
Important details are coming to light in the death of 11-year-old Ayesha allegedly at the hands of house owners in Faisalabad.
Ayesha, an 11-year-old domestic worker who was killed by violence in Faisalabad, got hired four months ago for a salary of 5,000 per month in a house belonging to a female lecturer in Naimat Colony.
Ayesha was beaten up on the allegations of theft to such an extent that she succumbed to her injuries and died.
Her parents have said that when they reached the Civil Hospital, they saw that their daughter was badly injured. They also revealed that they are being pressured by the influential suspects to reconcile, but they want them to be punished severely. Three of them are in police custody.
The police has informed Geo News that the girl was hired three to four months ago, while the child was beaten up a week ago. Further investigation is going on.
Previously, a horrific incident of violence against a young housemaid came to light in Faisalabad over the weekend. A 10-year-old maid died at the hands of her employers, reported Aaj TV.
The incident took place in Faisalabad’s Naimat Colony area, where a 10-year-old domestic worker died due to violence, after which the employers were detained and an investigation started. Three people, including two women, have been named in the case and all the suspects have been arrested.
Ayesha, 10, had been serving as house help in the house of Fazl-ur-Rehman, Suneela Tufail, and Raheela Tufail. The mother of the girl has said that she was not allowed to meet the child for three months. She was only informed about the death of the child.
According to the police, the female owner reached the civil hospital last night with the body of the girl. There were marks of violence on the girl’s body. The owner claimed that these were the marks of allergy on the girl’s body but the parents of the girl registered the case of death by violence in the police station. The police spokesperson said that more facts will come out after the autopsy.
Update: The DPO in Sadiqabad issued an order for departmental action while suspending the ASI for misbehaving with a foreign cyclist.
Explaining the incident, DPO Rahim Yar Khan Rizwan Omar Gondal said that 3 foreign cyclists entered Sadiqabad from Rahim Yar Khan limits from Sindh on Saturday and they were provided security as per SOP.
The cyclists were adamant that no security should be provided to them, upon which the fight took place, says the DPO.
According to the police spokesperson, the foreign cyclist sprayed the ASI in anger, on which the ASI slapped the foreign tourist.
Moreover, departmental action is being taken against the concerned police official by suspending him for inappropriate behavior.
Previously, it was reported three foreign tourists cycling in the Sadiqabad area of South Punjab have raised serious allegations of assault and sexual harassment against the Punjab police. They claim to have entered their jurisdictions on January 25.
A video of the attack on the tourists surfaced on Saturday where a policeman was seen using foul language and snatching the camera from the one documenting it. It was one of many alleged assaults that the cycling tourists, namely Alex Sidney of Italy, Charlie West of the UK, and Motahhareh Abbasi of Iran, had been facing since they entered Punjab. They have always been having a Punjab police escort supposed to ensure their security but the police allegedly attacked them.
Dawn talked to the tourists and the details narrated by them included horrific details of abuse and being manhandled brutally by a policeman, earlier identified as ASI Liaqat. Alex said the situation escalated as the officers reportedly grabbed him by the hair and subjected him to physical abuse.
Regarding the version of police, the tourists were stopped from going to Kashmore, Sindh, an unsafe area, when the confrontation happened. However, Alex said they were not going towards Kashmore but Lahore. He said they had cycled in Sindh, mostly escorted by police, but did not face any such incident there. In Punjab, he claimed, they had taken the same route as was told by police. According to him, it was not the first assault by police. “We entered Punjab on January 25 and started having assaults and harassment from January 26. In earlier assaults, we were hit by police vehicles and motorcycles as they continued telling us that we were going the wrong way. We told them that we were going to a hotel on the national highway. They would try to knock us down.” Motahhareh said the policemen in Punjab would drive their vehicles or ride motorcycles very close to her, sometimes making her get off the road. “On January 26, I fell down and got injured when a policeman stopped his motorcycle suddenly in front of her. And it was quite deliberate. I fell down and injured my leg while my heavy bags fell on me.” Motahhareh later got medical treatment for her leg.
About this alleged assault, Alex said they went to Ahmedpur Lamma Police Station and asked the policeman on the desk to register a complaint, but he refused to do so, asking them to take help from social media.
Motahhareh also raised serious allegations of sexual harassment against police in Pakistan. “Many times, they asked me for my WhatsApp number and kept on insisting. When I asked them the reason, they would start insulting me. At the start I gave my phone number to some of them and they started asking for pictures and sending creepy messages. For the last one month, I have been receiving creepy messages from Pakistani policemen.” She alleged that policemen from all three provinces they travelled in harassed her and the situation was worse in Punjab.
A policeman in Punjab held her hand forcibly for many minutes, said Alex. When asked whether there was a language barrier between the policemen and the tourists, Alex said some of the policemen spoke good English. “Whenever we stopped at some point to have a break, they would continue telling us it’s not safe here and it would be safe after a few kilometers. In fact, they wanted us to go out of their jurisdictions quickly but the next escort would do the same, telling us lies about the route as well.”
Alex said they felt safer without police as the common Pakistanis were very good and hospitable towards them and added that many times in Sindh, they did not have police escort and it was very safe.
Alex said they were staying in Sadiqabad near the site where they were assaulted by police as Motahhareh’s leg was recovering, rejecting the earlier police report that they had left the area for Lahore. He said he wanted to cycle through Punjab and meet the people who are very good. He said they felt safe when they were on their own without police and were in fact more in danger in presence of their escort, which ironically was there to protect them. Charlie West wanted to cycle separately towards Lahore as he rides it fast but the situation is unclear now.
Police in Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad have not provided their official version. However, Dawn’s sources in Rahim Yar Khan police said the tourists had left Sadiqabad hotel they were staying in on Saturday and now they were staying at a restaurant along a filling station in the middle of Sadiqabad and Rahim Yar Khan. The sources denied the allegations of assault but insisted that police escort was there for the tourists’ security.
Alex started his travel on bicycle from Italy in 2022 and cycled through Europe during the last two years. He was joined by Mohtahhare in Tehran when he was travelling towards Pakistan. They entered Pakistan from the Balochistan-Iran border and cycled through Balochistan and Sindh. In Karachi, they were joined by Charlie West who landed in Karachi from the UK.
Update: Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited one of the victims’ families on Sunday, and said the Punjab government would leave no stone unturned in providing justice to the victims and suspects would face the maximum punishment for the heinous crime. The district administration sealed the madrassa on Sunday.
“We are ashamed over this incident, but at the same time, it would be unfair to blame all seminaries. Reforms should be made to address this issue,” the chief minister said and maintained that his government would do what it could in this regard.
Chakwal police have obtained four days’ remand for the two teachers who have been arrested. “Fifteen students were brought to the hospital for medical examination. All of them carried knife and bite marks on their bodies,” Dr. Mohammad Haleem, the media coordinator of District Headquarters Hospital, told Dawn. He said the parents of nine victims had refused to proceed with the medical examination despite the fact that their children had complained of assault and knife and bite marks were also found on their bodies.
“We have also recovered a knife that suspects used to inflict cut marks on the bodies of students.” According to the FIR, the suspects wrote ‘Z’ on the victims’ bodies.
The DPO said that the management of the seminary was informed a month ago about the abuse.
“Instead of reporting the matter to police, the management settled it on its own by expelling the two suspects on November 11,” he said, adding that strict action would be taken against all those found involved in the offence.
When asked about the parents who had refused to pursue the case, the DPO said all the victims would be made part of the investigation.
The victim’s father who took the matter to the police informed Dawn that his son wanted to be a Naat Khawan and that’s why he got him admitted to the madrassa. He went to meet the son and there the kid clung to him and started crying. “Had my son not told me, this heinous crime would never have come to light,” the father said.
The management of the seminary, while talking to the media on Saturday, said it would cooperate with the police.
Previously, Chakwal Police have registered an FIR against two teachers at a Madrassa for assaulting a 12-year-old boy, reports Geo.
The FIR states that the boy’s father observed that his son was extremely perturbed. Upon asking, the boy revealed that the two teachers have made marks with knives over the bodies of many children, including him.
A local hospital has also confirmed the presence of scars on the children.
The police has arrested one of the two teachers while search for the other is underway. Both the teachers are not locals of Chakwal.
Israeli-American actress Edian Atias was recorded on video on Sunday, assaulting a child for protesting for Palestine. In a viral video, the Zionist was seen giving threating the boy infront of his family and friends.
This is the woman who committed the assault. She’s an actress in NYC. These aren’t isolated incidents.
As our government stands with genocide, Zionists feel emboldened to spit on, physically attack, and intimidate Palestinians and people in solidarity pic.twitter.com/IpvZvldsHv
The Zionist’s personal details were leaked online by the internet, who found out she is an actress in New York.
This is the woman who committed the assault. She’s an actress in NYC. These aren’t isolated incidents.
As our government stands with genocide, Zionists feel emboldened to spit on, physically attack, and intimidate Palestinians and people in solidarity pic.twitter.com/IpvZvldsHv
The incident is among the recent rise of hate crimes committed against Palestinians and protestors currently advocating for an end to the genocide in Gaza. Six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume was stabbed 26 times by his neighbour who, in a fit of rage, accused the family of spreading terrorism in the country. Just one day ago, Pakistani-American doctor Dr Talat Jehan Khan was murdered by a man in Texas. The case is under investigation.
Twitter users, including actress Nadia Jamil, expressed their outrage at assaulting a child.
Wow what kind of God do these sociopathic psychos worship. They are all so violent. Satanic. Nuts. https://t.co/399B0gM7dF
ironic they love to paint palestinians as angry barbarians but we’ve seen countless videos like this of them attacking people on the street for being against their genocide https://t.co/OMQ7PiUdR3
On Sunday night, several prominent models like Mushk Kaleem, Ifrah Humayun, Javeriya Haif came forward to condemn the brutality inflicted upon a makeup artist working with Nabila Salon, Bryan William. Model Mushk Kaleem was the first person to break the news, and said that model Robina Khan had her husband assault Bryan on set, because he had refused to carry her personal belongings during the shoot, describing it as something that “appalled” her.
“Imagine, you’re shooting in peace, and someone’s husband and his goons bring weapons with them, and start physically assaulting someone while you’re shooting. Appalled. Baffled. Disgusted. I hope this model’s name comes out. I hope no designer,/ model/ photographer ever works with her. Also hoping the Nabila team takes corrective measures and protects its employees.”
Several other models soon came forward to express their solidarity with the makeup artist, and demanded that Robina Khan is banned from working with prominent designers or photographers.
‘I know the MUA myself!” wrote Ifrah Humayun. “This act is not acceptable at any cost! This woman needs to be banned and be told that she cannot fuck around with people if she has a coward man and armed people around her.”
Nabila Salon released a short statement on their Instagram page, where they wrote the brand would work with professionals who value the dignity and safety of their employees.
Other makeup artists have also come forward to express their solidarity with Bryan, as the instagram user makeupwithshainal wrote:
“We makeup artists are not your servants. If we kindly refuse to hold your personal belongings may it be a piece of jewellery or anything please accept our request because if that item is mis placed, we get the first accusation saying that we stole it etc as we are the first people to see and deal with models…We are not your servants so please deal with us in a respectful manner.”
Robina Khan, the model who had led the assault on the makeup artist, has released a statement, alleging that the assault was justified because the makeup artist in question called her a “do takay ki model.”
‘The argument started when I requested a makeup artist to carry my phone when I was ready for my shot on shot today. He blatantly said that he was not going to do that and that ‘do takay’ ki model like me should take care of her own stuff and also swore at me, that made me so upset so I in turn swore at him.”
“I am sure no respectable husband would tolerate anyone abusing at his wife for no reason and when he arrived to pick me, he asked who misbehaved with me and this makeup artist in question very rudely said it was him and what was his problem. My husband got flared up because of this makeup artist’s condescending behavior and slapped him as he said no one has the right to misbehave with his wife this way.”
Punjab Police have said in an official statement that their constable filmed beating a journalist, is mentally ill.
The video shows a police officer on a motorcycle being stopped by a journalist and questioned about the missing number plate of his vehicle. Upon confrontation, the policeman slaps the journalist. Later, he hits out at other people who tried to stop the feud. The video stoked outrage on social media, with many users condemning the brutality displayed by the officer and demanding that strict action be taken.
Extremely vulgar but goddamn there isn’t a video that summarizes all of Pakistan more succinctly. Literally everything in here is so emblematic. Down to how sardonically funny and sad this is. Incredible. Send it to the Oscars. https://t.co/HDtLpvJCjY
Punjab Police have released a statement on their Twitter account, while Inspector General Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar has also addressed the violent feud, saying that the police officer in question is a constable who is mentally ill, and is currently being provided treatment.
The constable has also been taking absences from his work, the police have said.
The IGP went on to talk about the launch of an initiative that involves psychosocial profiles of 200 police officers across the province, reassuring constables that the purpose of these measurements was to ensure that they were all screened against 10 conditions and that it will provide counselling and treatment to affected employees.
آئی جی پنجاب ڈاکٹر عثمان انور کا سوشل میڈیا پر پولیس اہلکار کی وائرل ویڈیو بارے اہم پیغام، ویڈیو میں نظر آنیوالا کانسٹیبل نفسیاتی بیماری کا شکار ہے جسکا علاج کروایا جا رہاہے۔ 02 لاکھ سے زائد پولیس فورس کی ہیلتھ سکریننگ کے بعد 10 بیماریوں کا علاج معالجہ تکمیل کے مراحل میں ہے، اس… pic.twitter.com/B8IhZlh0Wi
In a disturbing incident in Ujjain city, Madhya Pradesh, India, a Muslim woman, who is a physiotherapist by profession, fell victim to a heinous assault and molestation by a group of men while she was on her way home, Dawn has reported on Monday.
According to local media reports, the incident occurred on Friday, and the suspects allegedly tried to molest her. When she bravely resisted, the attackers resorted to physical violence, subjecting her to a brutal beating. Notably, the girl’s cousin, who rushed to her aid, was also attacked by the assailants.
Shocking footage of the incident has circulated on social media, showing the attackers using iron rods and bats to assault the victim’s cousin.
Outraged by the appalling act, members of the Muslim community and local Congress party lawmaker Noori Khan took to the streets and staged a sit-in protest outside the Ujjain SP office, demanding justice for the victims and stringent action against the perpetrators.
Noori Khan expressed her deep concern and empathy for the victim after visiting her at the Ujjain Civil Hospital, where she is currently undergoing treatment for her injuries. Ms. Khan took to Twitter, stating that the victim’s agony and the disturbing sequence of events have left her shocked.
Adding further details to the incident, the victim herself took to her Twitter account and revealed that five men were involved in the brutal attack.
Law enforcement authorities have been urged to take prompt action in identifying and apprehending the culprits to deliver justice to the victims and send a strong message against such heinous crimes.
The incident has also sparked conversations on social media platforms, with netizens coming together to condemn the act and call for measures to ensure the safety of women in public spaces.
As the investigation continues, the victims and their families await justice, while the incident serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need for collective efforts to eradicate violence against women and create a safer environment for all citizens.
