Tag: sexual assault

  • Police find Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman guilty in madrassa sexual abuse case

    Police find Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman guilty in madrassa sexual abuse case

    According to the case record and police report submitted in court, Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman was found guilty of raping a madrassa student in Lahore, reports Samaa.

    The suspect’s bail plea at the Cantt Court on Tuesday was heard by Judicial Magistrate Rana Arshad. The investigation officer requested that his bail request should be rejected.

    Magistrate Arshad summoned the lawyers of both parties for arguments and has adjourned the hearing till September 10.

    Previously, Mufti Aziz confessed that the video was not fake and said that he was secretly filmed by his student.

    The victim in his statement said that Mufti Aziz accused him of cheating in his exams after which he was banned from taking the exams for three years. Mufti Aziz then asked the student to “make him happy” in order to get the ban lifted.

    When the video of Mufti Aziz’s sexual abuse went viral on social media, he was arrested on June 16.

  • ‘Men should lower their gaze’: Yashma Gill on rising sexual crimes against women

    ‘Men should lower their gaze’: Yashma Gill on rising sexual crimes against women

    Actor Yashma Gill has blamed the “400 men” for the mob attack on Ayesha Akram at Minar-e-Pakistan.

    The Pyar Ke Sadqay actor recently appeared on Gup Shup with FUCHSIA and talked about the increasing crimes against women in Pakistan, particularly Ayesha’s mob attack. “Why are we victim blaming the survivor? Those men had the free will to chose between right and wrong and they chose wrong,” stated the actor.

    “She (Ayesha) may have planted some men but some might have the conscience not to do that,” added the Qurban actor.

    She went on to say that some of her co-actresses said that Ayesha must have thought about her dressing before going there, “I stopped them right there and said that if women are to cover themselves then men should also lower their gaze according to Islam.”

    The Alif star further said that nobody can say that she incited men to assault her, one should know whether somebody incites you, try not to be incited by that individual.

    On the work front, Yashma can be seen currently in ARY’s Aazmaish opposite Fahad Sheikh, Furqan Qureshi and Kinza Hashmi.

  • Young Russian star Alexandra Djavi found dead in Goa, was sexually assaulted in 2019

    Young Russian star Alexandra Djavi found dead in Goa, was sexually assaulted in 2019

    Russian model and actor Alexandra Djavi was reportedly found dead at her residence in Goa on Friday, August 24.

    The Kanchana 3 star was found hanging in her rented flat in Siolim village of North Goa, she was under depression after she broke up with her boyfriend.

    In 2019, she had filed a police complaint against a Chennai-based photographer who was later arrested on charges of sexual harassment.

    As per the police, the actor’s boyfriend was living with her in the same apartment and had gone out when she died. Her body was kept in a mortuary while they were waiting for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Russian Consulate to conduct the autopsy.

    Meanwhile, a lawyer, Vikram Varma, the Goa representative of the Russian Consulate in Mumbai, urged the police to conduct a probe into the “possible role” of the Chennai-based photographer in the woman’s death.

  • Suspect in Minar-e-Pakistan incident gets pre-arrest bail

    Suspect in Minar-e-Pakistan incident gets pre-arrest bail

    A Lahore session court, on Saturday granted pre-arrest bail to a suspect, identified as Shehroz Saeed, who was allegedly involved in the horrendous mass sexual assault case at Minar-e-Pakistan on August 14.

    The bail is until September 3. According to Saeed’s lawyer, he is ready to cooperate with the authorities, and therefore, the court should direct police authorities to refrain from arresting him.

    Further developments

    Lahore police have arrested 66 people through geo-fencing, face matching, and conducted raids at 26 different places so far, confirms Government Spokesperson Shahbaz Gill.

    The police officer said that the woman who was attacked, Ayesha Akram, and her colleagues will identify the suspects during the parade and the remaining suspects.

    Ayesha Akram was attacked by 400 men when she was trying to record a video with four of her friends to celebrate Independence Day.

  • Pakistan has failed its women

    Pakistan has failed its women

    Just this week, we wrote about the heart-wrenching incident of sexual assault and harassment of a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan on August 14. As if this was not enough, two new videos surfaced yesterday — one in which a woman was forcefully kissed by a man when she was travelling on a Chingchi rickshaw on August 14.

    The man jumped on the Chingchi while it was stuck on the road due to traffic and tried to kiss the woman and we heard another woman’s scream, who was sitting with her. Another video shows a mob trying to harass a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan and she is only saved because she keeps waving a stick to disperse them and keep them at bay. 

    When we say that the women of Pakistan feel unsafe, we hear that these are just odd incidents and should not be used to distort the image of Pakistan. What exactly is the image of Pakistan if women of the country are being harassed, assaulted, and attacked every single day, in multiple incidents? These are not odd incidents. These incidents and their aftermath depict the reality of Pakistan: women are blamed after each incident.

    A TikToker gets sexually assaulted by hundreds of men for more than two and a half hours at Minar-e-Pakistan and no one helped her but she is blamed for going there for a meet and greet session with her fans. So, is a meet and greet session now forbidden for women in Pakistan, and does it warrant hundreds of men sexually assaulting a woman? When Noor Mukadam was beheaded, the women of Pakistan demanded justice. But there were those who started blaming a dead woman for being killed: ‘Why did she go there, why was she with a man alone, she had no family values.’ These were the disgusting comments being made to justify — JUSTIFY — a gruesome murder of an innocent woman. 

    When we hear such comments even after the most heinous crimes, it shows that Pakistan is no place for women. We do not respect our women. We do not like independent women. We dislike opinionated women. We justify crimes against women. We blame women for society’s ills. 

    Our leaders pass extremely violent and misogynistic comments against their women opponents and are still lauded instead of being reprimanded. When our top leader issues a rape apology, he is defended by women parliamentarians. When such is the attitude of the people on top, imagine what message it gives to the common people. They think they can do anything with women and get away with it. And they do get away in almost all cases. 
    This is our sad reality. Dear women of Pakistan, we are sorry. We have failed you.

  • Bakhtawar Bhutto demands men be banned from public spaces

    Bakhtawar Bhutto took to Twitter to express her outrage, demanding that all men should be banned from public spaces.

    In a series of tweets, Multimedia Journalist Sabin Agha shared the horrors of her experience of being harassed at Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi on August 14, a few years ago.

    “Some 100 odd frustrated boys & men attacked me & my cameraman at Mazar-e-Quaid. My cameraman and his camera were shoved back & forth/ but I was manhandled. I was groped on every part of my body. My hair was pulled from the back & both sides. My clothes & dupatta were pulled by men,” wrote Sabin.

    “At one point someone tried to wrap my dupatta around my neck to choke me, all the while groping me with hysterical laughs and every existing cussword hurled at me,” further added Sabin.

    “I went to police van standing at the doorstep of Mazar Quaid, who watched the entire episode. I asked them why did they not come to help. Police response: “bibi hum 4 hay aur wo 150. Hum kese rok sktay thy. Ap ayee kiyun [Madam, we were four in number and they 150 in total. How could we possibly have stopped them? Why did you come here?],” wrote Sabin.

    Reacting to the journalist’s experience angry Baktawar Bhutto demanded that “all men should be banned from public places”.

    “Another harrowing experience – witnessed by police who refused to help despite their ability to call for backup as well as use weapons to disperse the crowd. We need more women to safeguard women,” wrote Bakhtawar.

    Recently, three women were harassed in three separate incidents on Aug 14, which sparked outrage on social media.

  • Woman assaulted by hundreds of unidentified men at Minar-e-Pakistan

    Trigger warning: The following content contains allegations of sexual abuse and might be triggering for some readers

    A viral video shows a woman being sexually assaulted by a large group of men at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on 14 August, Pakistan’s independence day. The incident has been confirmed after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered.

    The FIR was registered under sections 354 A, 382, 147 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code against hundreds of unidentified persons for assaulting and stealing from a female TikToker and at least five other people, Dawn has reported.

    The complainant stated: “I was stripped and my clothes were torn apart,” adding that she cried for help but no one came to her rescue. She also alleged that her gold ornaments, cash and mobile phone were also snatched by the mob.

    The complainant further stated that she along with six companions were attacked by 300 to 400 people while filming a video near the Minar. “The unidentified persons assaulted us violently.”

    “The suspects should be traced with the help of footage,” said Lahore DIG Operations Sajid Kiyani in a statement.

    Read more– ‘It was her fault, Poor 400 men’: Female stars and politicians express anger on the ‘Minar-e-Pakistan’ incident

    Those who “violated a woman’s honour and harassed them will be brought within the ambit of the law”, the statement added.

    The video had been making rounds on social media in which a group of men can be seen groping, assaulting and carrying the woman.

    https://twitter.com/OutOnAbudget/status/1427406677154975744
  • Female politicians demand public hanging of rapists and murderers

    Female politicians demand public hanging of rapists and murderers

    Almost all the women lawmakers of the National Assembly, both from treasury and opposition benches, on Friday unanimously demanded the public hanging of all rapists, reported Dawn.

    The demand was made in the National Assembly by women members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

    Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari said the government had recently passed a law against rape cases, but laws will not work alone. There is a need to change the mindset of our society about women.

    She said that the government has to protect all women as women will no more accept their humiliation and suffering.

    Mehnaz Akbar Aziz of PML-N said the killer of Noor Muqaddam must be hanged in public so that such incidents do not take place in the future.

    “If Pakistan has to be run, then rapists and killers must be hanged in public. We will not let the country be run in the way it is being run,” said PTI lawmaker Asma Qadeer who broke into tears while speaking on the floor of the house.

    Asma Qadeer talked about the rising cases of rape of women and children and the recent beheading of Noor Mukadam.

    PPP’s Shamim Ara Panhwar said that in the light of increasing incidents of child abuse and rape of women, there was no other option but to hang rapists and killers in public.

  • A minor girl accuses a budding singer of alleged sexual assault

    A minor girl accuses a budding singer of alleged sexual assault

    A 16-year-old girl took to an Instagram portal to share her horrible experience of sexual assault at a budding singer’s farmhouse in Lahore.

    She claimed that Ayyy Tere Bin singer Salar Shamas assaulted her in a drunk state and later threatened her of his influence and privileged background.

    Influencer and Aamir Liaquat’s wife Tuba Aamir raised her voice against the heinous act.

    Salar denied the allegations through his social media handles. His brothers also stood up for him. The musician also did a live session in which he used abusive language.

    On being contacted by our team, Salar stated that he doesn’t know any such sixteen-year-old, and that he is disturbed by the false allegations leveled on him.

  • 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.