Yesterday, a man was shot dead in a lawyer’s chambers at the District Court for having raped a young girl. The plaintiff entered the lawyer’s chambers in the premises of the District Court and shot and killed the accused named in the case of the rape of a girl.
Two weeks ago, an incident of alleged sexual abuse of a minor girl took place in the Viram village of Kasur, after which the accused, Muhammad Saleem alias Malangi had fled. The police had registered a case against the accused under sections 376 (sexual assault) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offenses with punishment for imprisonment for life) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
A few days after the case was registered, accused Saleem had applied for interim bail through his lawyer. The accused appeared before the area magistrate on bail yesterday and then proceeded towards the chamber of his lawyer, Muhammad Ashfaq near Gate No. 2 of the district judiciary.
The plaintiff, a resident of the same village, entered the chamber of lawyer Muhammad Ashfaq and shot the accused Saleem. The alleged rapist died on the spot.
After gathering a heavy contingent of police, the concerned authorities were able to reach the crime scene to unravel and collect the evidence. Following this investigation, the District Bar Association went on strike against lawlessness and insecurity. Deputy Commissioner Manzar Javaid Ali also visited the district courts to review the security arrangements that were beefed up after the incident.
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A man allegedly raped his 12-year-old cousin in Khara village. A case was registered against the accused nominated by the complainant. Muhammad Jamil, a resident of Mouza Khara, lodged a complaint in the Saddar Police Station that he went out of his house on Tuesday for work and his wife Shazia Bibi also went to the fields to arrange fodder for the cattle.
Jamil said his 12-year-old youngest daughter was at home when his nephew Zahid who often came to his house, arrived there and raped his daughter, taking advantage of her being alone.
The girl fainted after the assault. The complainant alleged that a woman, Rubina Bibi, had also accompanied the accused Zahid and the rape took place in front of her. Meanwhile, his wife Shazia Bibi also returned home. Saddar police have registered a case under Section 376 against the accused on the complaint of Jamil.
Several rape cases have been reported in recent months in Kasur.
In January, police arrested a man for allegedly offering his minor daughter to another man for Rs500, who then tried to rape her.
The man who paid for sexual abuse was arrested by the authorities and a case was registered against both the suspects on the complaint of the minor’s mother. The victim’s mother said her husband had called a man to their house and let him sexually abuse their 12-year-old daughter after receiving Rs500. She said she was away for work when the incident happened. Her daughter told her about the incident when she returned, while both the suspects had managed to escape. Police took the victim to hospital for a medical examination and further revealed that it was an incident of attempted rape.
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The suspect who paid the amount to the father had earlier been booked in a child abuse case in 2013 but was not punished. Police lodged the fresh case under sections 376 (rape), 371-A (selling person for the purposes of prostitution) and 371-B (buying a person for the purposes of prostitution) of PPC against the suspects.
Kasur’s Problematic Past
In October 2019, Kasur police nabbed a suspected child rapist over the sexual assault and murder of four children in the district’s Chunian tehsil. An investigation into the suspect’s past highlighted how childhood victims of sexual abuse can sometimes turn into predators themselves. Speaking to The Express Tribune, the Kasur district’s top police officer said the suspect Sohail Shehzada had revealed during interrogation that he had been molested as a minor.