Woman raped after her husband demanded wages
MULTAN: A woman was gang raped after her husband demanded his wages from a local landlord.
Zainab bibi, was gang raped after her husband Arshad Muhammad asked a local landlord Ameen to pay his wages. On Wednesday, Ameen, who works in construction, went to Ameen’s dera to ask for his wages. “I had been waiting for a couple of weeks for the money after I constructed the houses. He owed me Rs30,000,” Muhammad said.
Arshad Muhammad told the police that he spent several weeks without the payment and eventually went to visit landlord Ameen to ask for the money.
“When I went to him, he had his men beat me up with sticks and hurled abuses at me,” Muhammad said, adding “the men finally let me go and I came back home.”
On Thursday afternoon, while Muhammad was at work, Zainab left the house to by some groceries and was kidnapped.
Zainab was abducted by Ameen and three of his accomplices and was taken to Ameen’s farmhouse located near the village. Ameen and his accomplices raped Zainab and threatened to kill her if she told the police. “They left me outside my house after a few hours but I was unconscious,” she said.
Arshad Muhammad said that he had made repeated visits to the police station to file a case against Ameen and his accomplices Yaseen, Nadeem and Ramzan.
“The police were unwilling to file a case or even listen to me. The moment they heard that I wanted to file a case against Ameen they barred me from the station,” he said. Mian Channu Sadar Police SHO Rana Farooq refused to file the FIR against the criminals and allegedly abused Muhammad for approaching the police.
After they were refused by the police Zainab and her husband approached the Khanewal district session judge Ijaz Ahmed Butt and the judge ordered the police to register the case. “
The police spoke in the court saying that we had no evidence even though my wife has a medical certificate testifying that she was raped,” Muhammad said.
“We didn’t initially register the case because there was no evidence,” SHO Rana Farooq said. District & Session Judge Ijaz Ahmed Butt has also ordered a report from the police stating the reasons regarding their earlier refusal to take the case.
Meanwhile, Ameen and his accomplices have fled the district and the police are conducting a search operation. “I know that they will not bring him in because we have already been receiving death threats.
If he is on the run then why does he have the time to call us and threaten us?” Muhammad said, adding that Ameen and his accomplices had called his wife and told her that they would kill the couple for informing the police.
Muhammad and Zainab have appealed to the Punjab Chief Minister for protection and have asked that the police ensure that the criminals are arrested as soon as possible.
Source: The Express Tribune
Date:1/22/2011
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