SAHIWAL: A female security guard of the University of Sahiwal, an employee of a private company, has filed a gang-rape case against five of her colleagues, employees of the same firm whose services were also hired by the university.

The complainant, a resident of Madina Town, alleged that five security guards, including the security supervisor, had gang-raped her on the university campus five months back and made a mobile phone video of the incident.

She said that she had reported the matter to the university administration, including Dr Tariq Masood, and the VC office but they hushed up the matter.

She alleged that instead of investigating the incident and giving her protection, the university removed her from job.

She told police it was mismanagement on the part of the university where her complaint was not handled timely and the suspects constantly blackmailed her.

University denies report, sources see ‘foul play’

Civil Lines Police SHO Rai Nasir confirmed with Dawn that a rape case had been registered against five suspects. He said two of the suspects had been arrested, one was at large while two others succeeded in getting interim bail from the court till Nov 16.

He said police were investigating the case from all angles, including the delay in registration of a complaint when medical examination could not verify the allegations.

He said the police were also tracing the whereabouts of the mobile video the complainant referred to in her statement.

UoS spokesperson Dr Ayub shared a signed statement, claiming no such incident had happened on the university campus and this “conspiracy is hatched by self-interested elements”.

On the other hand, Dawn has seen a document of the university where it had asked the security company to change seven guards, including the complainant and the suspects, from their duty at the university for creating law and order problem and showing negligence in duty.

The removal order was duly signed by Dr Tariq Masood, the resident officer and in-charge of university bus service.

Dawn learnt from the sources at the university there was a conflict between the security supervisor, nominated in the rape case, and Dr Masood as the former had filed a ‘verbal complaint’ with documentary evidence, alleging the resident officer was doing corruption of amount of Rs900,000 in managing the fleet of nine buses of the university.

The security supervisor told the university high-ups that nine buses daily travelled to Okara, Chichawatni, Pakpattan, Arifwala and Sahiwal city twice in documents but actually all buses were making just one round, causing a corruption of Rs900,000 monthly.

A source, on condition of anonymity, said the security supervisor, now in custody, was doing the duty of keeping record of entry of buses and he knew exactly how many rounds each bus was making.

When the security supervisor demanded an audit of the petrol used in transport, he and his colleagues were inducted in a rape case.

Speaking to Dawn, Dr Masood who holds multiple portfolios at the UoS including that of transport in-charge and security in-charge, on phone denied these financial embezzlement allegations and said no such complaints were filed with the university administration.

TTP MAN CONVICTED: Anti-terrorism court (ATC) special judge, Sahiwal region, handed down a man 31-year jail term over possession of explosive material with intent to carry out terrorist activities.

The ATC Judge, Zia Ullah Khan, announced the verdict against convict Isa Khan, who was arrested by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on August 3, 2024from 15/SP village of Pakpattan tehsil.

The CTD had recovered detonators, dry batteries, IED material, pipes, prima card and explosive material from him.

A case was registered against Isa under sections 4, 5, 7, of the Explosive Act and 7-ATA on the complaint of Muhammad Shoaib.

According to prosecution, Isa Khan is an office-bearer of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and was planning a terrorist attack.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2024