LAHORE, August 28 2006: An alleged rape victim has sobbed out her ordeal she had to face in the clutches of some ‘influential’ people of her locality. Narrating her catalogue of misfortunes at the Lahore Press Club on Sunday (Aug 27), the resident of Baghbanpura’s Multani Colony alleged that one of the perpetrators was none other than a “law enforcer who is the man behind the crime”.
A divorcee she was, she said her agony started when she found herself a victim of eve-teasing hardly a year ago. She would go to a local bazaar and one of the area residents, Sagheer alias Bawa Multani, became a habitual teaser who brought her honour into disrepute. One day she said she lost her temper and slapped the youngster who, however, threatened her with dire consequences for his “insult in public”.
Just a few days later, she said, as she was walking back home from the market, five people, including Naseer alias Shero, Lala Siddique, Sagheer alias Bawa Multani and CIA sub-inspector Mehdi Kazmi, bundled her into a car and took her to an outhouse where they raped her. Her trial continued for days at different places during which she was intoxicated. She also alleged that the culprits got her signature on blank papers time and again and also subjected her to verbal assaults.
She said after a few days her poor parents, together with some area people, visited Shero’s place who concocted a story that she had contracted marriage with Sagheer and was living with him of her own free will. He also threatened “my ageing parents that they will face serious consequences if they ever visit his place again. ” Finally she managed to escape the custody of the perpetrators who were under the influence at that time. However, Shero and Bawa Multani chased her and started firing at her house. She said her father called out the 15 police which responded to the call and arrested one of the culprits. The mobile police squad also helped institution of a case with the Shalimar police station.
“The outlaws enjoy the blessings of influential figures and have become a terror symbol in the town. No-one in the locality dares to speak against them as Mehdi Kazmi has introduced himself as DSP and Lala Siddique has earned notoriety for dealing in heroin trade,” exploded the sobbing woman. She said her trial did not end here as the influential people were now hurling murder threats at her and the family. “They threaten teaching me a lesson for pursuing the case. ”
Also accompanying the woman was her father who told a questioner that he lacked any guidance as he did financial resources to take up the matter in some court of law. Answering another question, he said initially some activists of the Shabab-i-Milli lent them some support and vowed to plead their case at every forum but later they, too, withdrew their support succumbing to the pressure of the gangsters.
When contacted, Shalimar police station SHO Tariq Pervez told Dawn that the matter had been reported to the additional IGP who had ordered appropriate action. He said the police had already arrested one of the suspects after registering a case and obtained his physical remand. –Salman Khan
Source: Dawn
Date:8/28/2006
