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| November 15, 2006 | Wednesday | Shawwal 22, 1427 |
‘Gang-raped’ woman, daughters seek justice
LAHORE, Nov 14: Three alleged gang rape victims of a family of Faisalabad district have appealed for justice and demanded police protection besides immediate arrest of the four influential accused.
Fiaz Kausar, 40, a resident of Jagatpur village, flanked by her two teen-aged daughters narrated her ordeal at a news conference at the Lahore Press Club here on Tuesday.
She said that she was living in a four-marla house donated by Norwegian national Asghar Vense in the village along with her six children. Some of Asghar’s relatives were not happy over his decision to donate the house to the family, she added.
“They first started playing badminton in front of our house and would tease me and my daughters Attia Batool, 17, and Saima Kausar, 16,” she alleged.
“One day I snubbed them for their activities. Feeling insulted, Sikandar, Sarfraz and Imtiaz entered my house on Sept 30 and gang-raped me on gunpoint,” Kausar alleged, adding that she reported the incident to the village numberdar.
The accused, along with Afzal, again entered the house four days after she complained to the village numbardar and gang-raped Kausar and her two daughters in a single room, she added.
“The culprits, who are relatives of a senior police officer of Faisalabad, started vigilance of my house and threatened to kill us all in case we made the matter public. On Oct 28, my nephew Mazhar Shah rescued us in a dramatic way,” Kausar said.
In spite of registration of an FIR, the accused are still at large and the police are trying for a patch-up between the two parties instead of arresting the culprits, the victims allege.
Rights activist Rao Zafar Iqbal, who also accompanied the victims, alleged the police converted section 10(4) into section 10 of Hudood law in the FIR to the advantage of the accused and were trying to trace the `victims’ to hush up the matter instead of arresting the accused.
“The culprits had even tried to kidnap the victims from the house of their relatives but the police saved three of them and now they were hiding and wanted police protection,” Mr Iqbal added.
KILLED: The Rangers claimed on Monday night to have killed a smuggler when he was crossing over the border from India and seized 27 bottles of liquor.
On a tip off that the contraband would be smuggled from India, a special check post was established and patrolling launched to check the border area.
On Monday night, the Rangers set up a picket in post Icho Gill, Wagah, and during an encounter, smuggler Farman Ali of Baseen village, Batapur, was killed while his accomplice managed to escape. —Reporter
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