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A search operation is underway to arrest the members of a panchayat (village council) who fled after ordering a man to rape a 16-year-old girl, police said on Wednesday.
According to SHO Malik Rashid, the search operation began after two cases were registered against the members of the council at a police station inside the Violence Against Women centre in Multan.
The council, comprising at least 40 men, was convened in Muzaffarabad's Rajpur area after a 12-year-old girl, F*, was raped by a man while cutting grass in a field on July 16, reads the First Information Report (FIR) filed at the police station.
On July 18, the panchayat ordered F's brother to rape 17-year-old N*, the sister of the accused. According to the police, N was dragged to the area where the panchayat was convened and was raped before the men and her parents.
After the incident, the parents of N filed an FIR on July 20, while a second FIR was filed on July 24 by F's family, who had initially wished to keep the matter quiet.
After the cases were registered, the police started investigations and arrested 20 of the council's members, including the head of the panchayat who gave the order. Search operations for the remaining men are underway.
*Names have been changed to protect privacy.
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On DawnNews
Comments (55) Closed
Jul 26, 2017 11:50am
Horrific!!! Keeping the people ignorant and institutions corrupt.
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Jul 26, 2017 11:57am
pathetic and horrible. may we as a nation, learn to condemn such horrible acts and mindsets
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Jul 26, 2017 12:01pm
Such cases were registered in the past but without any result
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Jul 26, 2017 12:06pm
Shame on the panchayat and on the people of that area who did nothing to stop this heinous crime.
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Jul 26, 2017 12:40pm
Stone age tales. just sad.
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Jul 26, 2017 12:46pm
it seems totally barbaric and jungle Law ,
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Jul 26, 2017 01:01pm
we didnt learn much from Mukhtaran mai's case. no education no end to social injustice
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Jul 26, 2017 01:04pm
How can people watch such horrific act?
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Jul 26, 2017 01:08pm
Dreadful Incident. It reflects the societal attitude towards women. It also reflects the absence of rule of law, less trust of citizens' on institutions the gap between the state and citizens.
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Jul 26, 2017 01:24pm
How can this still be happening in this day and age. These panchayats need some formal training
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Jul 26, 2017 01:29pm
Salute to police officers
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Jul 26, 2017 01:32pm
"raped before the men and her parents." what a disgusting society we live in. There is no law and order in our country, laws and punishment are for only poor and weak, wealthy and powerful escape the justice and yet our rulers cannot stop chanting empty slogans and rhetorical nonsense.
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Jul 26, 2017 01:33pm
They givr the orders how to treat others but are so coward themselves hiding now.
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Jul 26, 2017 01:34pm
Illiteracy, poverty and weak implementation of laws in the country are the main reasons behind such evil acts. Such incidents reflect the complete failure of the state and non-existence of rule of law. Non-state actors such as Panchayats and Jirga system must be declared illegal and banned. Chief Justice of Pakistan should take stern action against this parallel judicial systems in the country.
In our country Pakistan, poor and helpless women have always become victims of such parallel judicial systems and weak implementation of laws.
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Jul 26, 2017 01:51pm
When poor illiterate people start trusting such wicked elders instead of law of land.
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Jul 26, 2017 01:52pm
Any chance to make FIR system online? To verify the hand written FIR by police when it was written and cant be undone?
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Jul 26, 2017 02:03pm
condemn we all but it is not going to work. The hammer of law should come down very hard on the perpetrators of such crimes while at the same time institutions building like local bodies at the gross root level must be done to rid the people of illegal and illiterate councils or panchaits.
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Jul 26, 2017 02:39pm
Such pathetic plight of women is barbaric
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Jul 26, 2017 03:01pm
such harmful crimes must be non bailable and should be decided in 7 days. the culprit should be punished in next 7 days after judgement. no bails, no mercy...
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Jul 26, 2017 03:06pm
absolutely inhuman, this kind of behavior will only stop if people know what the consequences of such behavior will be. The culprits should pay a heavy price for this crime.
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Jul 26, 2017 03:10pm
many of these panchayats decisions go un-noticed because people are afraid to stand up against them since they have yo live among them
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Jul 26, 2017 03:11pm
What an irony.
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Jul 26, 2017 03:18pm
@Akram wrong, your silence is why crimes continue and you know it. you're no different.
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Jul 26, 2017 03:18pm
@The end is near Wrong, silence is.
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Jul 26, 2017 03:36pm
O my God ! no... Reading the heading I thought Panchayat has just ordered this rubbish decision and police has filed case against them, but reading the news... it is too bad. Barbaric, demonic, no word is sufficient. I am frightened. I wish my sister recovers soon.
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Jul 26, 2017 03:48pm
And the parents had to watch while their innocent daughter was violated by these disgusting savages! They must have died a thousand deaths.
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Jul 26, 2017 03:54pm
Supreme court should take suo motto action, and accord exemplary punishment.
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Jul 26, 2017 05:16pm
Education, education, education people we need to get our poor people educated so they know their rights.
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Jul 26, 2017 05:29pm
@Qamar Cases are registered and maybe some people are arrested. Then after a while when people forget the incident, everyone goes back home.
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Jul 26, 2017 05:55pm
Girls suffered.......in both the cases :(.....
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Jul 26, 2017 06:02pm
We have to change our way of seeing things and that is the only solution. Just college and universities will not change much as most of these culpirits are well educated but do such things to exercise their control and power on local people.
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Jul 26, 2017 06:16pm
This case should ideally be registered against the police officers who failed to identify such events in areas under their observance.
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Jul 26, 2017 06:28pm
All the members of this wretched panchayet should be given life imprisonment.
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Jul 26, 2017 06:45pm
These ignorant elders should know better that two wrongs don't make a right!
Down right disgraceful, inhumane and anti Islamic!
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Jul 26, 2017 07:23pm
Utterly disgusting and horrific! Shows the extreme moral decay in some of our rural areas where it's usually the woman that ends up paying the price for crimes committed by men close to her. Why not employ fundamental rules of justice and punish the actual perpetrators? The tribal justice system in these rural communities must not be allowed to try such sensitive cases. The state justice system must send a strong message by handing these panchayat members the punishment they deserve.
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Jul 26, 2017 08:17pm
Disgusting and inhumane.
People has to change their mindset to avoid such incidents. If more of religion and tradition gives this than may be society is better off without them. Worst in front of other people a small girl is raped as if it's normal. This tells lot about the society.
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Jul 26, 2017 08:36pm
Ignorance, lack of education, local culture and revenge are some of contributory factors that initiate such shameful incidents. Also, having weak juderial system plays a part and encourage such incidents. We need to educate, create more awareness, provide protection and court facilities to change preset mindsets, and it's a slow process and not going to be easy. But we have to start from somewhere to change backward thinking!
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Jul 26, 2017 08:38pm
What a panchayat! That shows the collective wisdom of the people in the area. Now multiply this kind of collective wisdom a few hundred times and you get to know the caliber of the Pakistani people. That should explain why Pakistan is in such a mess.
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Jul 26, 2017 10:07pm
Put these uneducated panchayat guys in jail and keep them there forever.
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Jul 27, 2017 01:48am
Unacceptable. Disgusting. May God Almighty bring these twisted men to justice.
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Jul 27, 2017 03:17am
Deals all persons with iron hands according to the Law
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Jul 27, 2017 06:45am
Inbred peasants - wake up- it's 2017
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Jul 27, 2017 11:01am
Beyond the horror, it's important to look into the reasons why such things happen in Pakistan.
Reason 1: lack of education
Reason 2: No rule of Law (if the people had any confidence in the justice system of Pakistan, why would there be a panchayat in the first place)
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Jul 27, 2017 12:16pm
From mukhtaran Mai case to this horrific incident, such crimes are increasing alarmingly , particularly in this south Punjab region . Most important thing is to find the causes of such mind set , what are factors which turns humans into wild animals. Government, please try to give education , add moral sciences as a subject in our curriculum,
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Jul 27, 2017 12:41pm
Not only does the law need to to be visibly implemented to deter such barbaric acts, We also need better legislation to punish pedophiles... these acts are not only in contradiction of our religious and national norms, they also are in contradiction of humanity...
But then we also need non-corrupt polititians to formulate legislation and a judicial system that atleast appears to work!
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Jul 27, 2017 05:49pm
@imran thanks for raising ur voice.
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Jul 28, 2017 07:07am
This is all because of lack of education. What are the chances that these council people will be made an example out of? Feeling bad for both girls.
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Jul 28, 2017 09:07am
@Tribal Malik That's the horrible truth you said. People are afraid to raise their voice against panchayat of their wrong doings as theyvthey've to live among them. The day Police start giving confidence to the people this whole nonsense will end. Politician's, Police Officials talk about people not coming to them to complain about the injustice but they never think that why these people are not coming to report the injustice done to them. We all blame the system for this mess but never do we think that this system was made by us(people), for our own greed we have let the whole system rot. The saddest part of all is that we expect someone else to do the necessary cleanliness work of the system but not ourselves by standing together & the keyboard warriors saying that this should be done & that shouldn't be done. The day we stand together will be the last for these crooked people on Earth. For your information, I'm an Indian. Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else in future.
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Jul 28, 2017 09:09am
@Pakistani Education doesn't mean that you're better. It's the inner conscience of one that matters. Even educated people acts are worse most of the time.
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Jul 28, 2017 10:31am
Punishing the weakest for the crimes of the strong and calling it justice.
These men cannot be equated even to beasts.
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Jul 28, 2017 10:55am
We all Pakistani women and girls are waiting for the result of this very bad incident.these kind of Punchaits must be banned by the state.Female is the victim in both shameful incidents.
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Jul 28, 2017 11:22am
When will such barbaric practices end ?
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Jul 28, 2017 11:51am
Hope Governments will justify with her....
That's type of cases day by day increase government should take stable action on it, its major responsibilities of Law and order.
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Jul 28, 2017 11:51am
Sad story. Don't know how the system allows back-to-back incidents of this kind. If this goes unchecked by the authorities, it is going to take forever to fix the system and public confidence goes to gutter.
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Jul 29, 2017 12:45am
We often talk about education, but what kind of education should we get nobody talks about that. We often cite lack of education as a reason for such heinous crimes against humanity. But was Mashal murdered by uneducated? No, he was murdered at an institution of higher learning and education. The problem is not that we are not education but we are illeducated. For example, we have always equated democracy with elections and having the prime minister complete the tenure etc. we have never thought beyond that nor our media have helped us educate in this regard and teach us that democracy also means emancipation, equality, egalitarianism, freedom etc to name just a few. The responsibility, as always, falls on the government to provide the right education so as to empower its young citizens.
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