It seems the Punjab police failure to arrest Abid Malhi, the main accused of Motorway gangrape case, has boosted morale of the criminals, which can be gauged from the increasing number of rape and dacoity cases being reported on a daily basis across the Province, well place sources in the Punjab police said here on Tuesday.
Exact figures are hence not available, but a January 12, 2016, statement of the incumbent Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar had shed some light on rape incidence statistics pertaining to Punjab at least.
Chaudhary Sarwar had revealed: “Pakistan is among the 10 worst countries when it comes to rape cases. Around 14,850 kidnapping cases involving women, children and girls have been reported in Punjab during the last one year. Around 10,000 rape cases were reported in Punjab during the last three and a half years, from January 2014 to June 2017. Some 2,000 women were kidnapped and 80pc of them were allegedly raped during last year, while 15 per cent of these were killed.
The-then Additional Inspector General and now head of Punjab Police, Inam Ghani, was quoted by media as saying that civil society should play an active role to curb crime instead of blaming the police.
It merits mentioning here that a few years ago, famous international NGO Human Rights Watch had revealed that a rape incident occurred every two hours in Pakistan, and a gangrape was mutilating the honour of a Pakistani woman every single hour.
Rape in Pakistan, which had gained global attention in 2003 after the politically sanctioned gang-rape of a woman Mukhtaran Bibi in Muzaffargarh District as an “honour rape” after allegations that her 12-year-old brother had sexual relations with a woman from a higher caste, remained a severely under-reported crime till date.
A May 12, 2020 report of the ‘Gulf News’ states: “An alarming increase has been observed in cases of crime/ violence against women and children in Pakistan during the first quarter of 2020. A periodical report titled “Tracking crimes against people – A numeric tale of human insecurity,” which has been released by rights group “Sustainable Social Development Organisation” has revealed a 200 per cent increase in cases of violence against women in Pakistan in the past three months.
The report, based on print media coverage of such incidents during the above-mentioned period, also shows the crime rate kept fluctuating during the period as 73 per cent drop was witnessed during the month of February but a spike of up to 360 per cent was witnessed during the month of March 2020.”
On April 17 this year, the American Department of State-led Overseas Security Advisory Council had produced a report in conjunction with the Regional Security Office at the US Consulate General in Lahore.
According to this report about rape incidents in Lahore, 101 such crimes were recorded and registered in 2017, there were 54 rapes in 2018 and 55 of such incidents had come to light in 2019.
On the other hand the only success of Punjab police in Sialkot Motorway rape case even after the passage of 20 days is that the police have managed to persuade the ring road rape victim to give a statement. According to police sources, the victim will give her initial statement by telephone.
The transcript of the victim’s initial statement of 161 will be attached with the challan. According to sources, the police will request the court for the camera trial. During the trial, it has been decided to use the pseudonym of the victim.
The victim has also agreed to identify the accused Shafqat Ali. Twenty days later, the main accused, Abid Malhi, is still out of reach of the police. According to police sources, the main accused is still in Punjab, the accused may be in the form of a beggar and a laborer.
