ISLAMABAD: The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) has expected a fair, diligent and exhaustive investigation by the capital police into the F-9 Park rape case.

While condemnation of the F-9 Park incident continued, another woman was subjected to gang-rape at her house in the rural area of the capital.

In a letter addressed to the capital police chief, NCSW stated that “it took grave notice of the incident reported in news in which a girl was gang-raped at gunpoint in F-9 Park.”

NCSW, a statutory watchdog organisation to promote and protect women’s rights and to save them from exploitation and abuse, noted that the incident was a sheer violation of fundamental constitutional rights of women and their right to life.

Another woman gang-raped in rural area of Islamabad, say police

“The commission expects from police that a fair, diligent and exhaustive investigation would be conducted of the incident in order to get the culprits convicted,” it said, adding in given circumstances, the issuance of necessary instruction to the investigation officer concerned for completion of a fair investigation was inevitable within the statutory time limits.

“We hope that the action shall be taken immediately with intimation to this commission as per law,” the letter added.

The NCSW is a financially and administratively autonomous statutory body established under the NCSW Act 2012 mandated to work on women’s issues including acting as a vigilant monitoring body, ensuring compliance with Pakistan’s constitutional guarantees and international commitments related to women’s rights.

A police officer told Dawn that there were 954 incidents of kidnapping and rape in the capital in 2022 compared to 667 such cases in 2021.

Criminal activities are increasing in the capital, but the focus of the concerned officers is to not register the cases, he said, adding last year 13,093 criminal activities took place in the capital, but the police registered only 11,332 of the cases.

As a result, those involved in the unregistered criminal activities remained unpunished, he said.

Another woman raped

A woman was gang-raped in the rural area of the capital, police said.

A case was registered at the Kirpa police station in response to the victim’s complaint.

The complainant said two persons armed with weapons raided her house and raped her on gunpoint. Three other persons, who remained outside, later also entered the house and beat her up, she added.

She said the suspects were relatives of her husband and were unhappy over her marriage with their cousin, the police added.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2023