DADU: A female nursing student at Peoples’ University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women in Nawabshah, who had accused university officials of attempting to beat her to death on her refusal to bow to their “unethical” demands on Feb 10, 2022, and made startling revelations about MBBS students’ suspicious deaths in hostel rooms, came under attack by armed men outside her house here a day before.

The victim, who was complainant in the FIR filed against main suspect Dr Ghulam Mustafa Rajput, a director in the university, and three other officials, observed hunger strike along with her uncle Ali Nawaz Rind at Dadu Press Club on Wednesday in protest against the attack and police failure to arrest the director despite rejection of his bail.

She told journalists that as soon as she and her uncle came out of their house late on Tuesday night to leave for Daulatpur where they were to attend hearing of their case on Jan 5, they came under fire by motorcycle-riding armed men.

They said that as they ran back into the house to save their lives the attackers shouted after them to withdraw the case or be ready to get killed. The director and in-charge of Women and Child Protection Cell, Benazir Jamali, were behind the attack, they said.

They said that Ms Jamali had been pressuring the victim since the day she had filed the case to withdraw the case and settle it out of court. Rajput was an influential person with links to ruling party, hence Nawabshah police were not ready to arrest him, said the victim.

She had been receiving death threats since the day she had registered the case against Rajput and others. Whenever she went out to attend hearing in court her car was chased by armed men in vehicles without number plates, she said.

She appealed to chief justices of Supreme Court and Sindh High court to order police to arrest the main accused and all the other suspects in the harassment case and provide her and her family protection.

The victim had gone public with her story in a video on Feb 10 last year, accusing three university officials of trying to kill her in her hostel room after she refused to accept their “unethical” demands.

The trio had been harassing her since her first year in the MBBS in the university at the behest of Dr Rajput after she turned down his offer to have unethical relation with him.

In another startling revelation, she had claimed that no medical student had ever committed suicide but all had been killed.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2023