Tag: motorway gang-rape

  • ‘Hadsa’ is back, Islamabad High Court reverses suspension

    ‘Hadsa’ is back, Islamabad High Court reverses suspension

    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has released a judgement ordering the reversal of the suspension on the controversial drama ‘Hadsa’, a series banned by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) after the motorway rape survivor accused the show of capitalising on her trauma. Legal expert Reema Omar shared a clip of the judgement on her Twitter account, where it was highlighted that the regulation board had not listened to the drama makers before announcing the ban:

    “The inconvenience caused to the applicant/appellant side including their irreparable loss is visible, all these ingredients compel this Court to pass the injunctive order.”

    The judgement also ordered that the explicit scene in question- the controversial gang rape of Episode 5- may not be repeated or broadcasted in the upcoming episodes.

    The controversy surrounding ‘Hadsa’ began in August when journalist Fareeha Idress shared an account of her conversation with the survivor, who shared that she was not consulted by the show runners who aired the controversial scene, and requested help from authorities to take down the drama.

    “They have made a drama on my life,” Fereeha tweeted Z told her. “As if I am nothing, no one asked me, it’s same, they are showing the same things, oh my God! Why didn’t I die before reliving this again? You know , I didn’t sleep after the incident for many many nights and it’s all back now, I haven’t slept a wink since I saw this terrible, horrendous depiction of the most terrible moments of my life which I so want to forget. It’s unbearable, I start shivering every day at 5 pm because I know the drama is coming at 7 pm. Why are they doing this to me?”.

    READ MORE: ‘I asked is this related to the motorway incident’: Hadiqa Kiani on motorway rape survivor statement

    Hadiqa Kiani released a lengthy statement on her social media accounts addressing the accusation, saying that after consulting the script writer and the rest of the team, she was sure the drama was not based on the motorway rape survivor:

    “When I was asked to do the role of Taskeen for Hadsa my first question was ‘Is this related to the motorway incident?’ ‘Is this based off the true incident?’ – I made it clear that I would not do the project if it was based off anyone’s story. The team behind the project explicitly told me ‘No’. After many conversations with the team and only after reading the script I understood that Hadsa was not related to or based off on the motorway story.”

    Director Wajahat Rauf answered the criticism by saying the drama was not based on the life of the motorway survivor, and said the purpose of the screenplay was to raise awareness about the ordeal rape survivors go through:

    “The drama is not based on the motorway incident. The protagonist, her husband, her three children, the family dynamics, the police officers who investigate the crime, the reason behind the crime, and the trial are all fictional. The only thing common is the part that the incident occurred on a highway.”

    “The last thing we would want to do is be insensitive towards someone who has been a victim of this brutal crime. It is our opinion that it would be far more insensitive towards the victims if we did not adopt a condemnation tone; in that case, one might argue that we are not at all familiar with the trauma that a rape victim goes through.”

    “Our writer did speak to actual victims who were willing to talk about their trauma and how they eventually coped with it and that is what is reflected in the play. A character should be judged after seeing her entire role. Judgement shouldn’t be passed on the basis of a glimpse of social media posts. Writers and directors can show temporary weakness to show long term strength of a character that develops.”

    On August 31, PEMRA released a statement announcing a ban on ‘Hadsa’.

  • Prime suspect in Gojra motorway gang-rape taken into custody

    Prime suspect in Gojra motorway gang-rape taken into custody

    The prime suspect in the gang-rape case of an 18-year-old woman on the M-4 motorway in Gojra has been arrested, reported Geo News.

    According to the Punjab Police, the main suspect is under interrogation, while a search is underway to find the other suspects.

    Moreover, the police have confirmed that the rape survivor underwent medical examination and a DNA sample is being taken, adding that the action has been initiated to arrest the other suspects.

    The suspects lured the young woman from Toba Tek Singh on the pretext of offering her a job.

    In the First Information Report (FIR), the survivor’s paternal aunt said that her 18-year-old niece received a message on her mobile phone for a job interview in Gojra.

    Her aunt said that upon reaching the place, the suspects put the survivor into a car, raped her on the motorway, and fled after throwing her at the Faisalabad Interchange.

  • Data: One year of rape cases in Pakistan

    Data: One year of rape cases in Pakistan

    Pakistan has been plagued by episodes of rape and abuse over the years that it has now become common to the extent that people have started normalising such acts.

    Back in 2002, Mukhtaran Mai’s gang-rape was one of the most horrifying gang-rape incidents that were reported.

    Another major incident that took place in 2014 was the Layyah gang-rape case, where a 20-year-old girl after being gang-raped, was found hanging from a tree. Such inhumane incidents haven’t stopped even now.

    A horrendous incident occurred on September 9, 2020, when a woman ran out of fuel on a motorway near Lahore. She was in the car with her two children.

    Two men stole her money and the jewellery she had on her. They then raped her in front of her two children in a nearby field and escaped.

    The incident sparked national outrage but what happened next? Before the arrest of the two culprits, questions like “Why was she out on the motorway so late without a brother or husband? Why didn’t she check her gas tank before leaving the house? And if she had to travel, why didn’t she take the more public GT Road route?” were asked because, sadly, in our country ‘getting raped’ is the woman’s fault. Apparently, a woman gets raped because ‘she was driving alone, on the wrong road, at the wrong time, in the wrong place’.

    Later, the motorway rapists were sentenced to death but rape cases continued to rise in Pakistan.

    On October 12, 2020, our team started counting rape cases on a daily basis from 13 different sources, which included these newspapers: Dawn, The News, The Express Tribune, The Nation, Pakistan Today, Daily Times, Nawa-e-Waqt, Daily Jang. And from these websites: ARY News, Geo News Samaa News Dunya News Aaj News.

    It is to be noted that the given stats only include the reported incidents, not the ones that go unreported.

    During the process, we have included reported rape cases of girls, boys, women, men and transgenders. Moreover, we have divided the rape cases province-wise, according to which Punjab till date has the highest number of rape cases, i.e. 936 rape cases and 44 attempted incidents.

    It has been a year since we have started posting our rape template daily to analyse the record of reported rape cases. We have collected the data of the entire year (October 12, 2020 to October 12, 2021) and prepared slides of reported cases of each month provinces-wise.

    Provinces Categorisation:

    Sindh

    Till date, Sindh has recorded a total of 60 reported rape cases in which 10 are attempted incidents. 11.6 per cent of cases were reported in the month of April and August as per the graph.

    Punjab

    Punjab has recorded a total of 936 reported rape cases in which 44 are attempted incidents until now. 13 per cent of cases were reported in August.

    Islamabad

    The capital has recorded a total of 13 reported rape cases which no attempted cases until now. The reported cases are relatively low as compared to other provinces’ data. However, 38.46 per cent of rape cases were reported in June this year.

    Balochistan

    Balochistan has reported a total of 11 reported rape cases. Most of the months show zero reported rape cases, according to the graph.

    KPK

    Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) has reported a total of 20 reported rape cases of which 2 were attempted incidents. The numbers throughout the months are quite the same.

    Deaths (province-wise)

    As per the graph, the death rate was high in the month of January i.e.14.5 per cent.

    Numbers of the recorded cases after the highlighted incidents of 2021

    After the following incidents, we noticed an increase in the reporting of rape cases.

    Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman: sexual assault case

    On June 17, police registered a criminal complaint against Mufti Aziz after a male student accused him of sexual abuse. In the aftermath of a viral graphic video that showed Mufti engaging in sexual intercourse with the male student, who was the victim, the action was taken against Mufti Aziz. After the incident, we noticed an increase of 10.7 per cent in the reporting of rape cases in the month of June.

    Usman Mirza’s sexual assault on a couple

    Usman Mirza was arrested on July 7. He was seen torturing and assaulting a couple. He was also seen stripping naked a woman in the video. The video sparked outrage across Pakistan. After the petrifying incident, an increase of 9 per cent was observed in the reporting of rape cases in the month of July.

    Noor Mukadam’s murder case

    On July 20, Noor Mukadam, daughter of former Pakistani diplomat Shaukat Mukadam, was raped, beheaded and murdered, in a posh neighbourhood of Islamabad in July. Noor’s murder led to nationwide protests. After her murder, as per the reported cases we have monitored, there was an increase of 12.6 per cent in the month of August.

    There are many more cases that are still unreported due to various reasons.

    According to The News, official statistics obtained from the Police, Law, and Justice Commission of Pakistan, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Women’s Foundation, and provincial welfare agencies in 2020 revealed that there are at least 11 rape cases reported in Pakistan every day with over 22,000 rape cases reported to the police across the country in the last six years.

  • Usman Mirza case: Stop blaming the victim

    Usman Mirza case: Stop blaming the victim

    A harrowing video recently went viral on social media in which a man, Usman Mirza, was seen harassing and assaulting a young couple. He had a few male accomplices with him, and he was also armed. Mirza beat up the couple, stripped them, and subjected them to sexual assault. Pakistani women on social media came out in support of the young couple and also voiced how unsafe and insecure they feel in a society full of misogyny and violence.

    Following an uproar on social media, the police arrested Usman Mirza and his accomplices. The police also reached out to the couple to record their statement. According to media reports, the couple recorded their statements separately under Section 161 of the Criminal Code. The incident took place last year in November and the couple was blackmailed by the culprit; they ended up paying more than a million rupees to Mirza. This was clearly not an isolated incident as more videos have been found from the mobile phones of the arrested men. It shows that this gang of criminals has been indulging in such nefarious activities for quite some time now.

    Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken notice of the case. The Islamabad police chief briefed PM Khan on the case yesterday. Thankfully, the police have so far been extremely responsible and have not indulged in any victim-blaming, unlike the Motorway gang rape case where CCPO Lahore’s comments about the rape survivor were atrocious, to say the least. SSP (Investigations) Atta-ur-Rehman appeared on a few TV talk shows and actually talked about why such incidents are not reported by victims and survivors due to social taboos. Unfortunately, we still have people in our society who think the victims are somehow at fault instead of holding the culprits solely responsible for their crime. Just last month, PM Khan made a controversial statement in an interview where he said that if women wear very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men unless they are robots. And today, in a now-deleted tweet, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Hina Butt said that while beasts Usman Mirza should be condemned but is it not necessary that we teach our boys and girls why they become targets of such beasts. “Our youth should also introspect their own behaviour.”

    One wonders why the young couple should introspect when they were the victims and not the perpetrators of a despicable crime. In fact, those who are busy blaming and shaming innocent victims should be introspecting instead. Such attitudes do not just make victims and survivors more insecure but are extremely triggering for those who have faced sexual harassment, assault, and rape. Why is it that ‘honour’ is always linked to a woman in our society? Why is it that instead of empowering women, even empowered women end up blaming the victims of abuse? Why is it that everything depends on how a woman was dressed or where she was or who she was with or at what time she went out? Why? We need to uproot this deeply embedded misogyny from our minds. We need to make our women feel secure. We need to make our laws stronger and implement them so that these survivors have trust in the justice system and also in our society so that they do report such harrowing incidents instead of staying quiet due to expected backlash. When we start pointing fingers at the victim, we end up empowering the criminals, the perpetrators of violent crimes. Stop this trend. Enough is enough.

  • ‘Linking women’s clothing to rape reflects PM’s criminal mindset’: Maryam Nawaz

    ‘Linking women’s clothing to rape reflects PM’s criminal mindset’: Maryam Nawaz

    Criticising Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s recent comments on women’s clothing and rape, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday said that linking women’s clothing to rape reflects the criminal mindset of the PM, adding that his words would only encourage the perpetrators.

    She further questioned if the young children who were sexually abused were also molested due to their clothes.

    “[He is] a person who validates rape and holds the victim responsible. Pakistan needs to be rid of this mindset of rape apologists,” she said. The PML-N leader went on to question whether Zainab’s rape and the motorway incident were a consequence of what the victims were wearing.

    Maryam said the prime minister “should be ashamed over such a statement”. She added that through his remarks in the interview, the PM had “insulted rape victims”.

  • Motorway rape case culprits handed death sentence

    Motorway rape case culprits handed death sentence

    An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore has handed two culprits in the motorway rape case – Abid Malhi and Shafqat Bagga – a death sentence. They have also been sentenced to prison for life and slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 each.

    According to reports, the two have been sentenced to death for gang-raping a woman on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway in September 2020. The court, which had earlier reserved the verdict, announced it today at Lahore’s Camp Jail, where the trial took place.

    This is the first time that convicts in a gang-rape case have been handed death sentences.

    The court has also ordered to confiscate the two convicts’ properties.

    THE INCIDENT

    A woman, along with her three children, was driving to Gujranwala in her car when she was forced to stop at the Gujjarpura section of the Lahore-Sialkot motorway after running out of fuel at around 1:30 am in September 2020.

    She immediately called a relative and sent him her location. He asked her to also dial the Motorway Police helpline 130 but she was reportedly refused help.

    In the meantime, two robbers approached the car, broke the window and took the woman and her children to nearby bushes where they raped her repeatedly in front of the children. They also snatched her purse that had cash around Rs100,000, one bracelet, car registration and three ATM cards.

    Read more – ‘We took her kids to the bushes to make her follow us,’ says man who gang-raped mother of three

    The Gujjarpura police have registered a case, while Motorway Police spokesperson said they had not been able to take action as the incident did not occur in the limits of Motorway Police.

    The case had sparked outrage and protests across the country following which the government formulated the Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020, under which special courts will be set up across the country to expedite trials of rape cases on a priority basis and award harsher sentences, such as chemical castration.

  • Sanam Saeed’s ‘Ab Buss’ takes inspiration from the motorway gang-rape incident

    Sanam Saeed’s ‘Ab Buss’ takes inspiration from the motorway gang-rape incident

    A new short film by YouTube channel See Prime titled Ab Buss starring Sanam Saeed in the lead takes inspiration from the horrible Lahore Motorway gang-rape incident that shook the nation earlier this year.

    The short film, written by Shahid Dogar and directed by Mohsin Talat, sends out a strong message on the subject. The plot of the film revolves around a woman who is taking extreme precautions while preparing for a trip to visit her father.

    “She knows she’s done it before and she can do it again – Maya packs for an unexpected trip as she gets a phone call,” reads the film’s official synopsis.

    Sanam has been a vocal advocate for women’s safety and empowerment. Earlier in September, the actor also took Twitter to demand castration as punishment for rapists.

    “Why hang them when we can castrate them? Why let them go so easily when they can live with the pain, shame, and guilt without their genitals,” she had written.

    She had further asserted that there should be zero tolerance for such heinous acts.

  • Motorway rapist wasn’t arrested, he surrendered: father

    After the arrest of the prime suspect in the motorway rape incident, Abid Malhi, his father claimed that the suspect had turned himself in after having escaped the Punjab police for a month.

    The father released a video Tuesday stating the above after police arrested Malhi a day ago from Faisalabad.

    Reportedly, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Special Branch of the police, and other agencies had tipped off Punjab police about the whereabouts of the suspect before the arrest was made, but the father’s video alleges that Malhi had called the police himself and that the arrest was made from Lahore’s Manga Mandi area in front of a person named Khalid Butt.

    Furthmore, as the arrest has been made, the father demanded that the female members of their family be released. Some of Abid’s relatives had been apprehended by police shortly after the incident took place.

    “Abid had expressed his wish to come home. At 6:30 pm, he returned,” his father said. “Abid was sent to the Crime Investigation Agency’s (CIA) [office] in Khalid Butt’s car,” he claimed.

    On the contrary, Punjab Inspector-General Police (IGP) Inam Ghani said that the suspect had been arrested by police.

  • Motorway gang-rape suspect says he evaded arrest for a month by wearing mask on public transport

    Motorway gang-rape suspect says he evaded arrest for a month by wearing mask on public transport

    The prime suspect of the Lahore-Sialkot motorway rape incident has revealed how he managed to hide from the police for almost a month before he was finally arrested on Monday evening, Geo reported.

    Last month, two robbers on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway had gang-raped a mother of two in front of her children in an area falling within the Gujjarpura police jurisdiction. The incident caused a countrywide outpouring of anger and brought sexual violence against women into national focus. Abid and Shafqat Ali alias Bagga — who is on judicial remand— are the main suspects in the case.

    According to police sources, Malhi said he spent a month travelling through various cities in Punjab using public transport while covering his face with a mask. 

    The suspect revealed that he had fled to Nankana Sahib after raping the woman, while his accomplice, Shafqat, escaped to Depalpur. 

    With the police on his trail, Malhi fled from Nankana Sahib to Bahawalpur, where he managed to evade the police once again and avoid recognition by wearing a mask over his face.

    “I travelled through various cities in public transport,” the suspect was quoted as saying.

    He was ultimately caught after he ran out of money and was forced to contact his wife. Abid was arrested from Faisalabad and is being shifted to Lahore, Hasnain Haider, a deputy superintendent (DSP) of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA), said.

    Abid, who was leading a gang of four, is also wanted to police in at least 10 other criminal cases registered at various police stations of Punjab.

  • Senators wipe the floor with Lahore CCPO after he contradicts motorway rape timeline, gives personal opinion

    Senators wipe the floor with Lahore CCPO after he contradicts motorway rape timeline, gives personal opinion

    Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh once again found himself in trouble when talking to the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights to talk about the motorway gang-rape case on Monday.

    There seemed to be discordant information about the authorities’ response time to the victim’s distress call when her car broke down on the M11 Motorway. The CCPO said that it took approximately 28 minutes to reach the area, while the officers who actually responded to the distress call said that they reached the area in under six minutes.

    The purpose of the hearing was to discuss the case regarding the horrible gang-rape and mugging of a mother travelling with her children at night on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway. The incident led to country-wide protests and calls for reforms in laws pertaining to sexual assault, specifically with a call for public hangings of the perpetrators.

    CCPO Sheikh said during the hearing that the woman was travelling without her husband’s permission, but soon thereafter admitted this was just a “guess”. He was reprimanded by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Krishna Kumari Kohli, a member of the Senate committee, who also told him not to make any such assumptions in the future.

    When the committee reprimanded him for giving his “personal opinions” instead of stating facts of the case, Sheikh backtracked and said that “he had been told that the victim had left late at night because she had to talk to her husband on video call”.

    The CCPO found himself in even hotter water when he forgot the name of the prime suspect in the case. Abid Ali has been on the run for the past 20 days and the eight special teams — comprising personnel from all of the Punjab Police’s departments — have failed to apprehend despite spotting him at least thrice across the province.

    Sheikh said, “If [police helpline] 15 had received the call, we could have reached that place in 25 minutes. The first call to 15 was at 2:47 am made by a passerby and the 15 officials reached at 3:15 am” while addressing the committee.

    In reply, Marri said either the CCPO lacked the correct information or the committee had been misled.

    “The call came at 2:47 am and the first [Dolphin Force] officer arrived at 2:53 am. I’m telling you the 100% truth,” the CCPO responded.

    “Then your cops are lying,” Marri shot back at him.

    “My job is to stop the crime and catch the culprits,” Sheikh replied. “Neither is there a CCTV [camera] at the toll plaza nor is an actual toll tax receipt given.”

    “Five technologies were used in the motorway rape case; geo-fencing, DNA filing, and fingerprint technology. Even the American police do not respond [to a crime] in six minutes,” he added.

    The committee members expressed anger over the contradiction in the police officer’s statement.

    “You say the police arrived at the scene in 28 minutes but the police said they had reached in six minutes,” the committee said. “The police tried to misguide the committee”.

    The CCPO’s repetitive apologies seemed to further irritate the committee.

    https://youtu.be/ClY85ZLGsFU

    “The CCPO only apologised out of fear of the court,” PkMAP Senator Usman Kakar said.

    Sheikh told the committee that Abid’s data had successfully been found from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency’s (PFSA) 2013 records. “The first case of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan was solved with [the use of] DNA,” he said.

    To which, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, the chairperson of the Senate committee, asked why Abid had been released. At this, Lahore’s top cop simply sought forgiveness once more.

    “Babar Malhi’s blood and DNA have also matched,” he said.

    At which, the committee members paused, in shock, and asked: “Babar Malhi or Abid Malhi? Is the main suspect [named] Abid or Babar? You are investigating this case and you don’t know the name of the main suspect.”

    At this point, the shaken officer cited his age as an excuse for his poor memory and continued to seek forgiveness from the committee, repeatedly apologising to all members of the hearing. He even went as far as to say a joint session should be summoned so he can apologise to all lawmakers at once.

    He also talked about his desire to bring “court-martial law” into the Punjab police forced, touted himself as someone “who wishes to bring reforms”, and blamed leaks on his 500 people strong police force.

    He further tried to shift part of the blame in the insufficient response to the call to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO).

    “In this case, too, an FWO officer was taken on the woman’s conference call. He told her he would send a car,” he said. “That car was on the M2 [motorway] and it took a long time to reach the site.”

    “The crux of the matter is that this alert should have been to 15,” he added.

    Speaking to The Current, Khokhar separately said that he was shocked over the CCPO’s statements. “His mix-ups have created confusion over the police response time.”