Woman who was gang-raped says she was also assaulted by cop when she went to file a report
A woman who was gang-raped in Pakistan has claimed that the police officer who filed the report of her crime raped her too.
The officer reportedly took the woman, hailing from the city of Uch Sharif in the Punjab province of the country, to a house saying he wanted to interview her, Dawn reports.
Once at the residence, the police officer attacked her and filmed the assault in its entirety. He also allegedly threatened her with telling everyone about the crime if she breathed a word about the rape. The assistant sub-inspector accused in the disturbing crime has now been arrested.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had visited the police station in Ahmedpur East to report the original crime, wherein she was allegedly raped by two men. On February 12, the police officer in question had reportedly summoned her to "record her witness statement."
Law enforcement in Pakistan is under the magnifying glass this year after a series of unaccounted shootings of suspects. More than a dozen counter-terror officers were arrested in January this year after a middle-aged couple and their 13-year-old daughter were shot and killed.
While it was initially claimed by police that the incident was a legitimate shootout, family members and witnesses said they had killed the family in cold blood.
The tragedy spurred national outrage, with several hundreds of empathizers swarming the streets of Lahore protesting against the police. At the time, Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was "shocked at seeing the traumatized children who saw their parents shot before their eyes."
In November 2018, an anesthetized woman was allegedly "raped for hours by staff while undergoing a hemorrhoids operation at Pakistan hospital." She realized something was wrong only when she started bleeding from her urinary tract and suffered immense pain during her stay at Services Hospital in Lahore.
In a twisted case of "revenge rape" in March last year, a family in Pakistan allegedly forgave their daughter's rapist after the victim's brother was allowed to do the same to her attacker's sister.
That same month, a man who was accused of raping a woman in Pir Mahal in the Toba Tek Singh district, Punjab, was forgiven after his family approached the victim's for "pardon and reconciliation."