Police have detained the wife of the prime suspect in the motorway rape case to investigate the whereabouts of Abdi Malhi, who continues to evade arrest in the case.
In an initial statement recorded with police, the wife -- who was arrested from the house of the suspect's parents in Manga Mandi, Lahore -- said that she did not know where her husband was, reported Dawn.
She further said that she has not been in contact with Abid, who continues to evade police ever since his identification as one of the suspects.
DSP Hussnain Haider said that law enforcement officials were interrogating every person taken into custody so far but are yet to trace Abid's location. On Thursday, a police team conducted a raid in Sheikhupura to arrest Abid, but it proved an exercise in futility.
Abid, who was leading a gang of four, was also wanted to police in at least 10 other criminal cases registered at various police stations of Punjab.
The other suspect in the case, Shafqat has already been detained by the police from his house in Okara. He has been sent to 14-day judicial remand by an anti-terrorism court earlier this week. According to reports, Shafqat confessed to the crime before his DNA matched the samples collected from the crime scene.
Police said the woman, a resident of Gujranwala, was returning to the city from Lahore on Tuesday night when her car ran out of petrol.
Geo News reported that the woman called her husband, who advised her to call Motorway Police for help until he got there. However, the Motorway Police operator excused from helping the woman, saying the emergency beat had not been assigned to anyone.
As she was left to her own devices on the deserted road, two armed men approached the vehicle and smashed its windows. They then took the woman and her children out of the car and took them into a nearby field after cutting the fence along the road to rape her. The report said the woman was also deprived of Rs100,000, jewelry, and ATM cards.
Human rights activists and people from civil society in major cities of Pakistan, including Karachi held demonstrations against the incident. People demanded of the government to take measures in order to control such brutal and barbaric elements from the society.
Aurat March Lahore along with other progressive outfits also arranged a protest at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk. Their demands included structural reform of police that focuses on accountability and transparency to the most vulnerable members of the community, immediate measures to improve the safety of public spaces without employing paternalistic measures such as curfews, and an introduction of victim and witness protection programmes.
After days of silence on the gang-rape of a woman on Lahore motorway that shook the nation, Prime Minister Imran Khan proposed the public hangings and chemical castration of rapists to curb sexual violence in Pakistan.
While talking about the gang-rape of a woman in front of her children last week, PM Imran said: “They [rapists] should be given exemplary punishments. In my opinion, they should be hanged at the chowk [intersection].”
However, experts and rights activists tend to disagree with what the prime minister has presented as the solution to the problem. Dr Nida Kirmani, who is a sociologist, responded that the announcement by the PM ‘misses the point that all men are socialised to a greater or lesser extent to be capable of such acts’.
“The idea that hanging or castrating a rapist is the solution makes it seem as if those who commit these crimes are monsters who are physically unable to control their urges,” she tweeted.
In an initial statement recorded with police, the wife -- who was arrested from the house of the suspect's parents in Manga Mandi, Lahore -- said that she did not know where her husband was, reported Dawn.
She further said that she has not been in contact with Abid, who continues to evade police ever since his identification as one of the suspects.
DSP Hussnain Haider said that law enforcement officials were interrogating every person taken into custody so far but are yet to trace Abid's location. On Thursday, a police team conducted a raid in Sheikhupura to arrest Abid, but it proved an exercise in futility.
Abid, who was leading a gang of four, was also wanted to police in at least 10 other criminal cases registered at various police stations of Punjab.
The other suspect in the case, Shafqat has already been detained by the police from his house in Okara. He has been sent to 14-day judicial remand by an anti-terrorism court earlier this week. According to reports, Shafqat confessed to the crime before his DNA matched the samples collected from the crime scene.
Rape on motorway:
A woman was allegedly raped by two men in front of her children after her car ran out of gas near Gujjarpura, Lahore.
Police said the woman, a resident of Gujranwala, was returning to the city from Lahore on Tuesday night when her car ran out of petrol.
Geo News reported that the woman called her husband, who advised her to call Motorway Police for help until he got there. However, the Motorway Police operator excused from helping the woman, saying the emergency beat had not been assigned to anyone.
As she was left to her own devices on the deserted road, two armed men approached the vehicle and smashed its windows. They then took the woman and her children out of the car and took them into a nearby field after cutting the fence along the road to rape her. The report said the woman was also deprived of Rs100,000, jewelry, and ATM cards.
Protests against incident:
Human rights activists and people from civil society in major cities of Pakistan, including Karachi held demonstrations against the incident. People demanded of the government to take measures in order to control such brutal and barbaric elements from the society.
Aurat March Lahore along with other progressive outfits also arranged a protest at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk. Their demands included structural reform of police that focuses on accountability and transparency to the most vulnerable members of the community, immediate measures to improve the safety of public spaces without employing paternalistic measures such as curfews, and an introduction of victim and witness protection programmes.
PM for public hanging:
After days of silence on the gang-rape of a woman on Lahore motorway that shook the nation, Prime Minister Imran Khan proposed the public hangings and chemical castration of rapists to curb sexual violence in Pakistan.
While talking about the gang-rape of a woman in front of her children last week, PM Imran said: “They [rapists] should be given exemplary punishments. In my opinion, they should be hanged at the chowk [intersection].”
However, experts and rights activists tend to disagree with what the prime minister has presented as the solution to the problem. Dr Nida Kirmani, who is a sociologist, responded that the announcement by the PM ‘misses the point that all men are socialised to a greater or lesser extent to be capable of such acts’.
“The idea that hanging or castrating a rapist is the solution makes it seem as if those who commit these crimes are monsters who are physically unable to control their urges,” she tweeted.