LAHORE: A woman was allegedly gang-raped by robbers at gunpoint in front of her husband and a three-year-old daughter in Hafizabad district here on Thursday.

The gangsters took the woman to nearby fields and ‘gang-raped’ her in front of her husband and daughter, a horrific crime that caused outrage in the country and abroad.

The reports suggested that the family was going to Chiniot by motorcycle when it was stopped by three robbers near Sukheke.

Instead of helping the victim family, the police officials of the Hafizabad and Nankana Sahib districts reportedly clashed over the ‘dispute of jurisdiction’, blatantly violating the Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) which were issued in the wake of the Lahore-Sialkot motorway gang-rape incident [2020] to respond to the sexual assault attacks on women.

Hafizabad, Nankana police differ over crime scene jurisdiction

The rape survivor has been shifted to a hospital.

An official said the family was resident of Chiniot district. He said the woman was going back to her home along with her husband and three-year-old daughter after meeting her maternal uncle late on Wednesday.

He said they were intercepted by three robbers at around 11:30pm. The gangsters later fled the scene after committing the heinous crime.

He said as the incident was reported to 15, the Nankana police diverted the call to the Hafizabad district police claiming that it was not their jurisdiction.

The Hafizabad police sent a team to the crime scene and after a brief investigation declared the crime spot the jurisdiction of Nankana police.

During the dispute over jurisdiction, the family remained unattended for an hour or so, the official said, adding that when the matter was brought to the notice of the DPO Hafizabad he directed the police to reach the spot and lodge a case.

The Sukheke police later registered a rape case against the unknown suspects and took into custody a suspected robber, recovering from his custody two pistols.

On Thursday morning, the official said, the police of both districts again entered into the dispute over jurisdiction.

When the Nankana Sahib police rejected the claim that it took place in their area, the Hafizabad police took tehsildar and other relevant staff of the Board of Revenue to the crime scene to establish the jurisdiction. The matter remained under discussion between the police all the day on Thursday.

Hafizabad DPO Faisal Gulzar told Dawn that though the incident took place in Nankana Sahib district, he had ordered to register the FIR in his district’s police station.

“We arrested one of the three criminals who looted the family and raped the woman”, he said adding that during interrogation the arrested suspect told the police that his accomplices fled towards Rawalpindi.

He said a police team dispatched immediately to Rawalpindi was working on the given instructions to trace and arrest other suspects.

The DPO claimed that the woman was raped by one criminal.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2024