A 35-year-old mother and her 15-year-old daughter were raped on Lahore Development Avenue(LDA) by a rickshaw driver and his accomplice on Sunday night.
The victims lodged a FIR against the two men under section 376 of Pakistan Penal Code. According to the FIR the mother daughter duo reached Lahore from Vehari at 10pm. They hired a green auto rickshaw from Thokar to take them to her sister’s house in Officer’s Colony, Saddar, Cantonment.
The rickshaw driver took them to a deserted place on the LDA, where he alongside his accomplice raped them one after the other.”The suspects would put hands on our mouth or would strangle us whenever we tried to cry for help”, the mother stated in the FIR. She said the suspects ran away, leaving behind their rickshaw after a car stopped near the site of the crime. “Seeing its light we screamed for help,” she said. The suspects also robbed her of her phone and Rs5000 cash.
On hearing their screams someone informed the police. The mother and daughter have been taken to the hospital to undergo a medical examination.The mother claims that she can identify the suspects.
The suspect has been identified as Umar Farooq and his accomplice Munsib. CCPO Lahore Ghulam Mahmood Dogar informed the press conference that the two men were habitual offenders and were involved in mutiple rape cases. He stated that all the evidence had been gathered from the site and investigations were underway.
The police has been ordered to make the arrests within 48 hours. While Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has took notice and sought a report from the CCPO.
Hardly a week goes by without an incident of this sort. The past few weeks are a clear indication that it is anything but “isolated incidents” and that the women of Pakistan are no longer safe.
