July 14, 2008	Monday	Rajab 10, 1429

LAHORE, July 13: An alleged rape victim tried to immolate herself outside the public court at the chief minister’s Model Town camp office on Sunday.

The victim, a resident of Sahiwal, appeared in court along with her relatives to register a complaint against “rape and the police failure to arrest the culprits”.

While waiting for her turn outside, she began sobbing out her tale for tears and chanted slogans against the police for not arresting her ‘rapist’. During the course of her griping, she poured oil on herself and was about to set herself ablaze when witnesses and the camp office staff stopped her.

Later, the Rescue 1122 officials shifted the woman to the Lahore General Hospital in a state of unconsciousness.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, after being informed, called the members of the woman’s family inside and marked an immediate inquiry into the matter after lending ear to their misfortune.

An official of the camp office, however, told Dawn that at least five inquires had already been conducted in the case by senior police officers in which the accused, who is the spiritual leader of the victim’s husband, had been exonerated.

He claimed that the previous record showed that the woman’s paternal nephew had kidnapped a girl in Sahiwal and a case was registered against him. She borrowed money from the ‘pir’ to meet litigation expenses in her nephew’s case and later handed over the possession of her plot to the creditor to settle the borrowed amount.

Later, she alleged that her creditor had raped her in the presence of his daughters and an FIR was lodged against the man on her weeping and wailing, the official claimed.