An Islamabad district and sessions court has sentenced Usman Mirza and four others to life imprisonment in the case of harassment and assaulting of a couple in Islamabad. The four accomplices include Mohib Bangash, Adaras Qayyum Butt, Hafiz Ataur Rehman and Farhan Shaheen. Meanwhile, Umar Bilal and Rehan Hassan Mughal were acquitted.
Judge Atta Rabbani announced the verdict.
بریکنگ نیوز ، عثمان مرزا کیس میں مرکزی ملزم عثمان سمیت پانچ ملزمان کو عمر قید کی سزا سنادی گئی دو ملزمان عمر بلال مروت اور ریحان حسین کو بری کردیا گیا ایڈیشنل سیشن جج عطا ربانی نے محفوظ فیصلہ سنا دیا https://t.co/X34mYClEPk
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry tweeted that despite the fact that the couple retracted their statements, the use of technology as evidence in the case is welcoming.
The minister also added that justice will prevail in Sialkot and other cases too.
عثمان مرزا کیس میں متاثرہ لڑکی اور نوجوان کے منحرف ہونے کے باوجود عمر قید کی سزا جدید ٹیکنالوجی کی بطور شہادت قبولیت کی انتہائ خوش آئند ہے، وہی معاشرے ترقی کا زینہ چڑھتےہیں جہاں انصاف ہو انشاللہ سیالکوٹ اور دیگر مقدموں میں بھی انصاف کے قریب ہیں
The case was highlighted last year in July when a video of Usman Mirza harassing a couple went viral on social media. Mirza was arrested on July 7 after the disturbing video went viral on social media where he could be seen torturing and assaulting a couple. He was also seen stripping the woman in the video. On January 11, the female victim refused to identify any of the accused and said she does not want to pursue the case, after which the state decided to pursue prosecution.
A court in Islamabad on Monday rejected the acquittal plea filed by Umar Bilal, a co-suspect, in the couple harassment case. Umar Bilal filed an application seeking his acquittal, after the female victim in the case retracted her statement.
The verdict was announced by Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Atta Rabbani. The court observed that the trial has entered its final phase.
The victims of the Usman Mirza case have appeared again on Wednesday in front of the court after being absent from the last hearing held on January 18.
The Additional District and Sessions Judge Atta Rabbani resumed the hearing today in which the female victim revealed that she was being forced to pursue the case. She said, “I have given the statement that I don’t know anyone.”
The prosecutor Rana Hasan Abbas questioned the male victim during cross-examination to narrate the background of the incident. To which he replied: “I cannot recall the details of the incident and also don’t remember what shirt I was wearing that day.”
The female victim claimed that she was not in this video that is being circulated on social media. She also said that she has not taken Rs 10 million from one of the suspects.
While replying to a question about whether she signed the blank papers under any influence to which she responded with: “I don’t know.”
“There are seven people of the same face in this world,” she added when told that the video was authentic. She denied that it was her in the video.
The court adjourned the hearing till January 25th.
Last year, a video of Usman Mirza harassing a couple went viral on social media which created an outrage across the country. The following day Islamabad police arrested Usman Mirza who is the prime suspect in the case.
A district and session court in Islamabad has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant on Tuesday against the victim couple in the Usman Mirza harassment case after they did not appear in the court hearing.
Judge Mohammad Ata Rabbani expressed anger over the absence of the couple in court. On this account, the non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against the couple on the orders of the judge.
However, the lawyer representing them pleaded that both victims are out of the city and it would take three hours to reach the court.
The court has dismissed the hearing till January 19, 2022 (today).
Last year, a video of Usman Mirza harassing a couple went viral on social media which created an outrage across the country. The following day Islamabad police arrested Usman Mirza who is the prime suspect in the case.
She also told the court that she did not want to appear for subsequent hearings in the case. However, the judge told her that she would have to appear and adjourned the hearing for January 18.
Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice Barrister Maleeka Bokhari in a tweet has said that the State will pursue prosecution in the Usman Mirza case.
“The State will pursue prosecution in the Usman Mirza case irrespective of recent developments relating to victim’s testimony. Irrefutable video & forensic evidence on record- anyone harrassing & stripping a woman must face full force of the law,” read Bokhari’s tweet.
Meeting held at @MoLawJusticeof1 The State will pursue prosecution in the Usman Mirza case irrespective of recent developments relating to victim’s testimony.Irrefutable video & forensic evidence on record- anyone harrassing & stripping a woman must face full force of the law. pic.twitter.com/SHRMCzhXk1
The case came back into the limelight again yesterday when Journalist Rauf Klasra, in a tweet said that the victim couple in the Usman Mirza case have refused to recognise the accused persons. He further said that police has said the couple have taken “one crore and have reached a settlement.”
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Investigation Attaur Rehman, while talking to Journalist Rauf Klasra, has talked about the Usman Mirza couple harassment case in details.
He told Klasra the video of the couple being harassed by Usman Mirza was sent to “Punjab Forensic Science” to check its authenticity, and the “Punjab Forensic Science Agency” confirmed that the video was authentic and the people in the video are the same.
He added that police arrested the accused persons after working very hard as the incident happened 8 to 9 months before the video went viral.
He also said that police is providing the victim couple with protection but they are not coming forward due to “social taboos”.
The journalist also asked the SSP about the confession of the accused persons to which he said that the accused persons have confessed to the crime.
Talking about the future of the case SSP said, “On the next hearing, we will go with scientific and forensic [evidence]. He continued by explaining that there are two types of evidences: one is circumstantial evidence and the other is the statements of the witnesses. “Other than that there are forensic evidences also, which play a key role, and we have many forensic evidences in this case.” He hoped that this case will still be pursued and the involved people will be punished.
He also said that despite the fact that victims have retracted their statements, he will try to get the accused persons will get punished based on other evidence.
The journalist further asked the SSP that how the couple agreed for an out of the court settlement when the police was standing behind them. Were they facing any threats or did they take any money? To which the SSP said being a police officer, he will say that as long as the threats were concerned, he doesn’t think that’s the case. Talking about the couple taking the money he said, “there is a probability” that they took money, but i can’t say that with “authenticity”.
The case came back into the limelight again yesterday when Journalist Rauf Klasra, in a tweet said that the victim couple in the Usman Mirza case have refused to recognise the accused persons. He further said that police has said the couple have taken “one crore and have reached a settlement.”
Usman Mirza is prime suspect in couple harassment case. A video of Usman Mirza and his friends went viral on social media in which they were torturing and assaulting a couple in Islamabad. Moreover, the accused persons continued blackmailing the couple after filming the couple in which they were forced to have sexual intercourse at gunpoint.
Soon after the details were revealed, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan directed the police to ensure justice. However, recently the case has taken an unexpected turn. The following is the brief timeline of the incident which has created a debate on media platforms.
July 6: A video of Usman Mirza harassing a couple went viral on social media which created an outrage across the country.
July 7: Usman Mirza was arrested by Islamabad police.
August 2: Mirza filed a bail plea but was rejected by Islamabad High Court (IHC) and he was sent to Adiala Jail till September 10.
September 27: The police submitted a challan in the court, in which victims’ statements were recorded.
September 28: Indictment of at least three suspects, including Mirza.
October 3: Initiation of legal proceedings against the suspects.
January 10: The lawyer of the victim reported that the victims’ mobile phones were switched off. Reports that victims had been paid off.
January 11: On the day of the hearing, the female victim refused to identify any of the accused and said she does not want to pursue the case.
She also told the court that she did not want to appear for subsequent hearings in the case. However, the judge told her that she would have to appear and adjourned the hearing for January 18.
Journalist Rauf Klasra, in a tweet has said that the victim couple in the Usman Mirza case have refused to recognise the accused persons. He further said that police has said the couple have taken “1 crore and have reached a settlement.”
اسلام آباد عثمان مرزا ریپ کیس میں مدعی لڑکے اور لڑکی اپنے بیان سے مکر گئے ہیں یہ ان کے ملزم ہی نہیں ہیں۔ پولیس زرائع مطابق صلح کے لیے ایک کروڑ روپے سے زیادہ کی ڈیل کی گئی ہے۔پولیس کی ساری محنت پر پانی پھیر دیا گیا ہے۔مرزا بہت جلد آپ کے درمیان ہوں گے ٹک ٹاک پر۔ہور کوئی ساڈے لائق؟
Usman Mirza, the prime accused in the couple harassment case, was arrested on July 7 after the disturbing video went viral on social media where he could be seen torturing and assaulting a couple. He was also seen stripping the woman in the video.
Seven suspects including Usman Mirza were indicted in the case in September.
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.
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.
The police has submitted a challan in the the Islamabad couple harassment case. The challan submitted at an Islamabad sessions court states that there are seven accused in the crime. In addition to Usman, the others are Farhan Shaheen, Hafiz Ataur Rehman, Adaras Qayyum Butt, Rehan Hassan Mughal, Umar Bilal and Mohib Bangash.
The woman’s statement recorded in front of the magistrate states that that Usman Mirza and the other suspects threatened to gang-rape her if she did not have sex with her friend while they filmed it.
“I was frightened because of their threats; they tortured me and forcibly removed the trouser of my friend,” the woman stated, adding: “The accused persons then forced her to perform a nude dance in front of them.”
“Upon my refusal, he [Usman] started beating me. He slapped me and forced me to walk nude in front of his friends,” the challan cited the statement of the girl as saying.
The man and woman were being blackmailed by Usman Mirza. “The men extorted Rs1.15 million from the complainants,” the investigation officer told the court. Out of the Rs. 1.15 million, Rs600,000 was taken by Mirza and the remaining amount was distributed among other suspects, he added.
The police have forwarded the mobile phones of the accused for forensic analysis and requested the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Usman Mirza was arrested on July 7 after the disturbing video went viral on social media where he could be seen torturing and assaulting a couple. He was also seen stripping a woman in the video.
