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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Gang-rape victim's family being harassed - Culprits remain at large |
| 2004-08-24 |
| Influential people in the Bait Mir Hazar Khan area of Muzaffargarh district are pressurizing the family members of a gang-rape victim to make them withdraw the case while the police have yet to arrest the culprits. The 12-year-old victim had gone to the fields near her home in Mauza Bait Dirayee at night on Aug 15 to answer the call of nature when she was allegedly overpowered by Mukhtar and Bashir Ahmed and raped. Her elderly father, Abdul Ghafoor, told Dawn on Sunday that they got worried when she did not come back. They searched the area and found her lying unconscious in the cotton fields nearby. She narrated her ordeal on coming to her senses after a couple of hours. He said the next morning when they were heading towards the Bait Mir Hazar Khan police station to lodge the FIR, a locally influential person forced them to stay back and called a panchayat to decide the next course of action. He said that a panchayat was called by Rustam Khan Rind with Noor Muhammad, Akbar Baloch, Rabnawaz Baloch, Abbas Baloch, Nasir Shah and Farid Chandrarr as its members. Scores of other people also assembled to watch proceedings of the panchayat, he added. The panchayat decided that if Mukhtar and Bashir were found guilty they would give two of their women in marriage to two men of victim's family and in case the allegation of rape proved wrong the victim's family would have to give four women in marriage to members of the family of the accused. The victim's family accepted the panchayat decision, allegedly under duress. But the accused refused to accept it. They however offered Rs50,000 as compensation if the victim did not lodge a case with police. The panchayat put off the matter for another day. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 Let me guess. It's wonderful Islamic Pak Land. Being an islamic state I issue this prediction. The victim will be punished. The police will look the other way. This is the way of Islam. Allan be praised. |
| Posted by: Trolling for Allan 2004-08-24 7:49:07 AM |