Lahore,
The gang rape of a woman between Tuesday and Wednesday night at the Lahore motorway moving from Lahore to Gujjar pura is another chilling reminder of the threat posed by criminals who populate our alleyways and highways.
Medical examination of a women confirmed the rape, and police arrest more than 12 suspects from near by village of the crime scene. Police and medical team collect the DNA from all the 12 suspects. High level investigations are underway.
The victim, accompanied by her two children, was waiting for assistance on the side of the highway after her car ran out of fuel. Her vehicle was attacked by two armed men, who then took her and her two children to a nearby field on gun-point and sexually abused her.
Anger outrages through out the country when newly-appointed police chief of Lahore Umar Shaikh managed to make the situation worse by suggesting that the victim was also to blame for the situation.
“What surprises me is that, being a mother of three (young) children and the only driver (unaccompanied by an adult male), why would she not take the GT Road that has population around it? If nothing else, she should have checked her fuel,” CCPO Umar Sheikh told to local news channel, in an audio interview.
https://twitter.com/DunyaNews/status/1304120183049662469
Chief minister Punjab Usman Bozdar said in a n TV Interview over the CCPO Umar Sheikh statement that full scale inquiry underway against the culprits and each and every person who shows extreme negligence in the case.
The video clip has since been widely shared on social media, including Twitter, and resulted in an infuriated response from social media with #RemoveCCPOLahore becoming one of the top trends in the country.
The blatant victim-blaming also elicited a response from the country’s human rights minister.
For an officer to effectively blame a woman for being gang raped by saying she should have taken the GT Road or question as to why she went out in the night with her children is unacceptable & have taken up this issue. Nothing can ever rationalise the crime of rape. That's it.
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) September 10, 2020
The shut up calls quickly followed, with one user who uses the handle @daanistan also hoping for a modicum of karma against those dishing out unsolicited advice to women.
https://twitter.com/daanistan/status/1304006209347952640
Similarly, writer Aiman Rizvi cast doubt over the public’s transitory approach to sexual violence in the country,”Every few months we erupt into a moral outrage over a reported rape case protests are organized, a public hanging is demanded and then we swiftly move on to the next news cycle There’s no engagement with the underlying structural issues – just a desire to pacify a bloodlust”..
https://twitter.com/Aimanfrizvi/status/1303997025298640896
While academic Nida Kirmani was of the view that the top cop should not only be ousted but the “victim-blaming mentality that pervades our society should be removed”.
Remove him & more importantly, remove the victim-blaming mentality that pervades our society! #RemoveCCPOLahore
— Nida Kirmani (@NidaKirmani) September 10, 2020
Pakistan Peoples Party leader Sharmila Faruqii was of the view that a “zero tolerance policy” should be adopted toward men who support the criminal while bashing the victim.
Prime Minister Imran Khan strongly condemned the incident and assured that those responsible for the heinous act would be taken to task.
وزیر اعظم عمران خان کا معصوم بچی اور خاتون سے زیادتی کے مختلف واقعات کا سخت نوٹس
خواتین کا تحفظ حکومت کی اولین ترجیح اور ذمہ داری ہے۔ کسی مہذب معاشرے میں ایسی درندگی اور حیوانیت کی اجازت نہیں دی جا سکتی۔ ایسے واقعات ہماری سماجی اقدار کے منافی اور سوسائٹی پر بدنما داغ ہیں۔
— Prime Minister's Office (@PakPMO) September 10, 2020
