FAISALABAD, Jan 17: A gang-rape victim has threatened to commit suicide along with her three children in front of the Supreme Court if the perpetrators will not be rounded up and trial of her case not started immediately. Speaking at a news conference here in the District Bar Room on Tuesday, the victim, ‘F’ along with her husband and National Council for Human Rights coordinator Rao Zafar Iqbal advocate, alleged that she was abducted by 10 people, led by Muhammad Anwar, from her house in an agricultural farm of Chiniot, Jhang, on the night of May 30, 2005.
She said Muhammad Anwar, Akbar Ali, Ghulam Ali, Sajid Ali, Tanveer, Muhammad Ali, Liaquat Ali, Mansab, Nawaz, Abbas, Sarwar, Nadeem and Mumtaz took her to an outhouse along the river Chenab. Anwar, Akbar, Sajid, Liaquat and Muhammad Ali raped her one by one at gunpoint, she said, charging the suspects with forcing her to dance and see an X-rated film.
“They confined me to the outhouse for two days and raped me at gunpoint. Tanveer and Nadeem raped me in the fields along the river as well.”
The ill-fated woman said she was shifted to Ghulam Ali’s house from where she was recovered by a police party which got her medical examination conducted from the hospital.
“The medial report showed that I was gang-raped and tortured by the gangsters and a lady doctor also confirmed it in her statement before the police,” she said.
The Chiniot Saddar police had registered a case against the culprits under section 10(4) and 16 of the Hudood Ordinance, 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 337, 148, 148 and 13/20/65. The police investigation declared the suspects guilty of crime and presented the case for trial before the Anti-Terrorist Court.
They, subsequently, arrested Anwar, Ghulam Ali, Sajid, Tanveer, Muhammad Ali, Liaquat, Sarwar, Nadeem, Mumtaz and declared Mansab, Nawaz and Abbas proclaimed offenders.
The proclaimed offenders and families of the accused, said the complainant, threatened her to kill her husband and children if the case was not withdrawn. “My family left the house in Chiniot and shifted to Chak No 4-JB of Faisalabad in the face of a constant threat.
“Some notables of Chiniot offered me Rs1.5 million in cash for the withdrawal of the case, but I refused to do so and prayed to Allah Almighty for justice.”
According to the victim, the accused had prepared fake compromise affidavits from her and witnesses of the case and presented the same before the ATC. We appeared before court and challenged the affidavits due to which the court recorded fresh statements of the complainant and the witnesses.
Fearful of punishment, the accused had filed a petition before the Lahore High Court and got a stay order on the trial and decision of the case. She said she had been running from pillar to post to save herself and her family for the last seven months.
“Now we don’t have a penny to feed the children or pay fee to lawyers to follow the case.”
She said the NCHR coordinator had offered her free legal aid and was pursuing the case in the local court as well as the LHC. She demanded the Chief Justice of Pakistan should take suo motu action and direct the lower courts to immediately dispose of her case so that the accused could be punished.
“I don’t want to become a Mukhtaran Mai or Sonia Naz. All I want is justice from the chief justice so that such incidents do not repeat in future,” she said.