Pakistan punishment for Rape

Multan, July 27: Fourteen members of a jirga have been arrested for ordering the rape of a teenage girl as punishment for a rape committed by her brother in a Multan village, police said Wednesday.

The heinous crime was committed last week in Rajapur village near Muzaffarabad town.

"A jirga (village council) had ordered the rape of a 16-year-old girl as punishment, as her cousin had raped a 12-year-old girl from the same village," said Allah Baksh, a local police official.

He said the village council was approached by one Ashfaq, who complained that his 12-year-old sister, Shamim, had been raped by their relative, Umar.

The jirga/panchayat comprising Ameen, Saeed Patwari and others then handed over a cousin of Umer, named Azra, to complainant Ashfaq and ordered him to rape Azra in return. The panchayat order was duly carried out, police said.

Sources claimed that both the families had initially agreed on the panchayat verdict, but later they both approached a Women Centre and got registered cases against each other. The allegations of revenge-rape were confirmed by Rashid Taheem, the police officer heading the investigation.

"Both the parties had filed cases of rape against each other at the local police station after the incident that happened last week," he said.

"We have arrested 14 people of the village council so far," he said, adding that the "main accused", Ashfaq, who raped the 12-year-old was still at large.