Girl escapes rape bid, seeks govt protection
MUZAFFARABAD, March 24,2005: Family members of a girl who escaped an alleged attempt of sexual assault in a village near here have urged the authorities to bring to book the perpetrators who were constantly threatening them.
“We urge the authorities in the name of God to bring the culprits to book as early as possible,” said the girl and his relatives at a news conference, organised by the ‘Press for Peace’ which works for protection of human rights and media freedom in the AJK.
According to the FIR lodged in Chikar police station on March 9, the girl had gone to collect fuel wood in Bazaar Nara village when Fazlur Rehman tried to assault her.
Upon her resistance, the accused tried to strangulate the girl with her scarf, but she managed to escape and reached the house of her maternal grandfather where she lived.
However, the accused and his two accomplices identified in the FIR as Tausif, son of Qasim, and Yousuf, son of Hassan, followed her to the house and hit her uncle Altaf in the head with an axe and also wounded her aunt Tasleem when they tried to stop them.
The trauma made her uncle deaf and dumb. He has been admitted to a hospital in Muzaffarabad. The girl’s mother, aunt, grandfather, the uncle, and some other relatives also addressed the press conference and accused police of not taking any action against the accused.
The accused were also threatening to kill them, they said. Press for Peace coordinator Khwaja Zafar Iqbal told reporters that his organisation had written letters to officials at various levels but no action had been taken so far. Local lawyer Amira Batool told reporters that the Chikar police had booked the accused for inflicting wounds on the victims and not for attempted rape.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/25/2005
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