Tag: Punjab

  • 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.

  • Police arrest man for harassing, asking phone number from girl

    A young man was arrested in Lahore for harassing a girl and asking for her phone number, Geo News reported.

    A man in Iqbal Town had been harassing a girl for a few days and was asking for her phone number.

    Read More: Student in US harrased for highlighting Palestinians, Uighurs in her graduation speech

    The victim later posted the pictures on social media. The police tracked the man from his motorcycle number plate. The police have registered a case against the suspect, who has been identified as Naveed Asif.

  • Video: BJP minister’s son crushes protesting farmers with his car in India

    Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish has been named in the police complaint for running over protesting farmers and locals with his car, reports The Hindustan Times

    The incident took place in Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Lakhimpur Kher, which resulted in eight people’s death.

    A longer version of the video that emerged on social media on Tuesday shows an SUV mowing down people. According to farm groups, a Mahindra Thar owned by Mishra knocked down them.

    Farm leader Rakesh Tikai, while demanding the resignation of the minister, said, “The government has to dismiss the minister, arrest his son and fulfill its promises timely.”

    “It all happened in front of me. My father was knocked down by the vehicle from behind. I tried to hold him but couldn’t do anything,” said 14-year-old Rajdeep Singh, whose father Daljeet was one of the victims.

    However, the minister told NDTV that the vehicle which ran over the farmers was his but neither he nor his son was present at the spot when the incident happened.

    In his interview, the minister stated, “As far as the vehicle is concerned, I was clear that my driver was killed, two workers were killed. One worker escaped, three workers are injured, and after that, the car stopped there.”

    With the video being widely shared on different social media platforms, people are enraged and demanding strict action

    https://twitter.com/RanaAyyub/status/1445794643677880325?s=20
    https://twitter.com/NidhiSuresh_/status/1445772486423891973?s=20

    The incident happened when a group of protesting farmers tried to block Mishra and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya from visiting Tikonia area of Kheri as they were reportedly upset over a recent speech by the Union Minister.

  • Woman arrested for throwing acid on ex-husband

    A woman was detained for throwing acid on her ex-husband in Lahore, Samaa News reported.

    According to the victim, Sajid Khan, his ex-wife attacked him outside his house near Band Road. The couple separated three years back. A week ago, Khan got married for the second time.

    “On September 30, I remarried. While I was on my way back home, she [the suspect] threw acid on me. There were two people with me who witnessed the attack,” he told the police.

    The investigation officer told Samaa that the woman disguised herself as a beggar to track Khan. “He has sustained third-degree burns on his back, neck and hands,” he added.

    Police have arrested the woman while an investigation is underway.

  • Seven booked for gang-raping minor girl for five months

    Seven booked for gang-raping minor girl for five months

    Police on Saturday booked seven people for gang-raping a minor orphan girl for five months. She was repeatedly assaulted by the suspects who blackmailed her and threatened to kill her younger brother, Dawn reported.

    According to the FIR, an orphan girl of Basti Odki Abdullah Shah was allegedly gang-raped by two locals at gunpoint about four to five months ago after the suspects found her alone at her house when her mother was away working as a housemaid.

    The FIR stated the two suspects threatened to murder the victim’s only younger brother Ahmed if she told anyone about the rape.

    Police sources said the girl, however, had informed her mother about the incident who kept visiting the local police station to register the complaint but because of some locally influential people, she was turned away by police officials of the area.

    Meanwhile, another local joined the two suspects in the heinous crime and they would gang-rape the girl whenever they found her alone.

    Some three months ago, four other men of the same area caught the suspects red-handed while they were assaulting the girl in the fields and they too blackmailed and raped her. The FIR said that as a result of repeatedly being rape, the girl got pregnant.

    The sources said some of the police officials forced the victim’s mother into taking the matter to the panchayat (village jury).

    The panchayat decided that the suspects would pay a certain amount to the girl’s mother as compensation and she, along with her two children, leave the village. The girl’s family came to Lahore following the decision.

    However, the family returned to the village and again contacted the police for registration of a case against the suspects.

    Finally, the district police officer took notice of the incident and on his orders, the local police station in Bahawalnagar registered an FIR against all the seven suspects under Section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

    District police spokesperson Saleem Ayaz admitted that the girl’s family had approached the police for help but meanwhile, a local panchayat interfered and settled the issue on its own.

    He said a case against the seven suspects was registered on the order of DPO Zafar Buzdar and three of them had been detained, while raids were being conducted to arrest the others.

  • 10 children sexually abused in Pakistan every day from Jan to June: report

    10 children sexually abused in Pakistan every day from Jan to June: report

    More than 10 children were the victims of sexual abuse on average every day between January and June, a report by child protection organisation Sahil says.

    The report titled “Six Months Cruel Numbers 2021”, states that the average number of children subjected to abuse has increased by two children per day in comparison with the last year’s first six months’ report.

    “This year, 81 daily national and regional newspapers were monitored during January-June 2021 to collect data on child sexual abuse, abduction, missing children, and the cases of early forced marriages,” stated the report.

    The data used in the report is collected from all four provinces of Pakistan including Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), besides Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit Baltistan (GB). The report revealed that a total of 1,896 cases of child abuse were reported in the period.

    Of these, 1,084 cases were of sexual abuse against children, 523 were cases of abduction, 238 cases of missing children, and 51 cases of child marriages.

    The report further states that 53% (1,013) of the victims were girls and (883) 47% were boys.

    It revealed that “children from the age group 6-15 are most vulnerable to abuse”.

    As many as 640 children from 11 to 15 years and 409 children from the age bracket 6-10 were subjected to different types of abuse during the last six months, the report added.

    According to the report, in 1,045 cases, the abusers were acquaintances, while they were strangers in 430 cases, relatives in 49 cases, female accomplices in 47 cases, seminary/school teachers in 38 cases, neighbours in 37 cases, and family members in 32 cases.

    In addition to this, the data showed that 60% of the total cases were reported from Punjab and 6% from the ICT.

    The rest of the cases were reported from other provinces — 26% from Sindh, 5% from KPK, and 3% from Balochistan, and AJK & GB.

    Of the total cases, 58% were reported from rural areas and 42% cases from urban areas.

    Sahil has been working since 1996 on child protection, especially against child sexual abuse (CSA).

    Sahil aims to develop a society and environment where every child should be safe, secure, and protected from abuse, especially from sexual abuse.

  • Dengue on the rise in Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif urges govt to protect people

    Ninety-two cases of dengue have been reported in Punjab in the last 24 hours, Dawn has reported. Of those 92 cases, 64 cases were reported from Lahore. As per the details, 828 cases of dengue virus have been reported in Punjab, and 687 in Lahore.

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif has urged the government to implement dengue control guidelines to protect people.

    “Dengue is spreading & people are getting infected. I would ask the government to implement the dengue control guidelines & protocols that are already in place to mitigate the threat. People’s lives are precious and every measure should be adopted to protect them from dengue,” Shehbaz wrote in a tweet.

    In 2019, more than 8,670 cases of dengue were recorded in Punjab alone with over 50,000 reported from all over Pakistan.

  • VIDEO: Man arrested for harassing women at Lahore bus stop

    The Punjab police detained a man on Thursday for harassing three women waiting at a bus stop in Lahore.

    A Twitter user, Hasna Khan Dasti, posted a video that shows a man advancing towards the women who were running away from him.

    https://twitter.com/HasnaDasti/status/1440993562951393283?s=20

    Soon after the video did the rounds on social media, the Punjab police shared a picture of the suspect in custody, saying that the police had registered a case and arrested the suspect.

    Since the Minar-e-Pakistan incident, the number of sexual harassment and assault cases has increased up to 300 per cent in Lahore.

    A police report stated that during the past 1.5 months, 642 cases of sexual harassment were registered under sections 354, 354-A and 509-B as compared to the number of incidents up to less than 150 that had been reported before August 14.

    Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Shariq Jamal Khan said that the ratio of sexual assault and harassment cases was high in the past but previously people used to avoid registering cases.

    He added that the actions related to the accused in the incident of Greater Iqbal Park have encouraged the women to report such cases. He said that the authorities will take strict action in such cases.

  • Woman gang-raped at Lahore hotel for seven days

    Woman gang-raped at Lahore hotel for seven days

    A woman was allegedly gang-raped at a hotel in Lahore’s Millat Park area, reported ARY News.

    As per details, the police have registered a first information report (FIR) at the victim’s complaint.

    The woman said to be a dancer by profession, told the police that a man named Zafar invited her to a wedding party for dancing and made her stay at a local hotel.

    She said Zafar — with two other accomplices, Hamza and Azam — raped her for seven days. The victim further claimed that they robbed her of Rs600,000 cash.

    Taking notice of the incident, the city police chief ordered the registration of a case on her complaint. The police said they have arrested one accused while two others have fled.

    Efforts are underway to arrest the escaped suspects at the earliest, they added.

  • Hindu family ‘tortured’ for taking drinking water from mosque

    Hindu family ‘tortured’ for taking drinking water from mosque

    A farmworker’s family from the Hindu community was allegedly tortured by some village landlords for “violating the sanctity” of the mosque after they obtained water from a mosque’s tap, Dawn reported.

    The incident happened a few days back when Alam Ram Bheel, a resident of Basti Kahoor Khan in the city suburbs, was picking raw cotton (phutti) with his family members, including his wife, in a field of Chak 106-P.

    Ram said his family went to a nearby mosque to fetch water to drink from a tap, after which some local landlords and their men beat them up. When the family was going back home after unloading the picked cotton, the landlords held them hostage at their dera (outhouse) and beat them again.

    Later, some Muslim residents of Basti Kahoor Khan got the Bheel family released.

    Ram Bheel said the Airport police station did not file the case as the people who attacked were related to a local PTI parliamentarian.

    Ram said he held a sit-in outside the police station to protest the arrogance.

    Also a member of the district peace committee, Peter Jhon Bheel told Dawn that they approached PTI MNA Javed Warriach who helped them register the FIR on Friday.

    Jhon said he requested other members of the district peace committee to discuss the issue in a meeting but they did not take him seriously.

    PTI’s South Punjab Minority Wing Secretary General Yodhister Chohan told Dawn that he knew about the incident but due to the influence of a ruling party MP, he preferred to stay away.

    District Police Officer Asad Sarfraz said that he was looking into the matter.

    Deputy Commissioner Dr Khuram Shehzad said he would meet Hindu minority elders on Monday (today) before taking any action.