On Wednesday 26th July 2017, Pakistani police arrested 20 people in Punjab province who organized a village council that ordered a man to rape a 16-years-old girl.
Village councils were typically consisting of local elders are a traditional means of dispute resolution in rural Pakistan, where the formal legal system is not always accessible. Such councils do not, however hold any legal standing.
According to some officials, a rape was planned and organized in order to take revenge for earlier rape of his sister.
The prosecutor requested that suspected would have to face death penalty or life in prison for allegedly ordering rape victim’s brother to rape suspect’s sister.
Malik Rashid, the local police official heading the investigation told Al-Jazeera, “The suspects were arrested from near the central city of Multan on Wednesday. A hunt for seven more suspects was under way.”
He added, “It was not a formal village council, like has happened in the past. It was just gathering of uncles and aunts (of the first victim) from that village, in the same area.”
Malik confirmed that cases had been registered regarding the two rapes.
Under the constitution of Pakistan law the maximum punishment for rape under Pakistani law is death penalty or convicts may face imprisonment of up to 25 years.
A female activist Tasneem Firdous said, “My question is to all Human Rights Organization why always is a woman brutally treated by man, if a girl is raped, again another girl has to pay the ransom.
On July 16th 2017, a 12 years old girl was targeted while working in the family fields just south of Multan.
A mother of 12 years old girl’s mother told police, “My daughter was cutting grass in the field on July 16th 2017, at round 2 pm when that incident happened. She was covered in a cloth (by the attacker) and forcibly raped.”
Later the village council gathered together and instead to punishing the victim gave that decision to rape the member of alleged rapist family in revenge.
The second victim’s (whose brother rapped a 12-year-old girl) mother told, “On the night of July 18th 2017, at about 2 am I was sleeping with my children in my house when… my 16 years old daughter was taken away by three men.”
She added, “We implored the culprits to leave my daughter alone, but they threatened us that if anyone came forward they would be killed.”
According to a Thomson Reuter’s Foundation poll in 2011, Pakistan is the world’s third most dangerous country for women, with domestic abuse, sexual harassment, acid attacks and economic discrimination common.
Last year, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan documented at least 2,446 cases of violence against women in the country including 958 registered rape cases, and unregistered are numberless.
The investigating police officer Rashid said, “Their shameful act is now before the entire world.”
The new law in Punjab, Pakistan’s largest populated province, criminalized all the forms of violence against women, including domestic, psychological and sexual violence , and established a toll-free for reporting abuse.
Reporter: Syeda Faiza Bukhari
