The number of tragic events in 2020 appear only to be going up. In yet another tragic incident in Pakistan’s Punjab province, a female resident of Gujranwala has allegedly been raped and robbed. As per the police report on the incident, two armed men allegedly raped her while she was stranded on the motorway with her children; after which they robbed her of her money and other valuables.
The woman, who has not been named, was on her way back to the city via Lahore’s Ring Road at 01:03am on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, her vehicle ran out of fuel an hour later near Gujjarpura. The stranded woman waited for her husband and had called a relative for help in the meantime. She was advised to call the motorway police. After calling the motorway police’s 130 emergency helpline for assistance, she was told by the operator that she could not be helped as the emergency beat had not been assigned to anyone.
With no choice but to wait for her husband, the woman was left stranded on the road when two unidentified armed men arrived by foot from a nearby area. As they arrived at the car, they smashed the window, dragging her and her children out, cutting through the fence and into the field where they raped her in the presence of her children. This is how the incident ensued as per the FIR.
The woman said that she was robbed of all her jewellery, her ATM cards and Rs100,000 cash before they fled from the scene. She was later shifted to a hospital and the medical examination report has been sent for forensic analysis while a case has been registered by the police. A report of the incident has also been sought by the Punjab chief minister.
Meanwhile, the motorway police have said that the area where the incident took place is not under their control as the Lahore-Sialkot motorway was only recently completed and the motorway police are yet to receive charge over it.
The incident has sparked fury amongst the citizens of Pakistan for obvious reasons. The number of reported rape cases seem to be on the rise in the country and social media has been abuzz with angry folk urging the public hangings of rapists. Subsequently, the hashtags #Motorwayincident and #PublicHangingofRapists have been trending on Twitter and the incident has created an outrage.
“The only punishment of rapists is stoning,” wrote one user, while another questioned, “are they really humans?”
Are they really humans?#motorwayincident pic.twitter.com/tvlWeF5B9u
— Muhammad Ali ?? (@MAliSgd) September 10, 2020
Commenting on the justice system of Pakistan, one user wrote, “The Justice system of Pakistan needs a complete overhauling along with psycho-social, politic, recreational and economic system of the nation. Shame on Us! as when women ask for their rights, we called them ……….. Bla Bla..”
The Justice system of Pakistan needs a complete overhauling along with psycho-social, politic, recreational and economic system of the nation. Shame on Us! as when women ask for their rights, we called them ……….. Bla Bla.. #Motorway #motorwayincident pic.twitter.com/xqvXLuKLVf
— Irfan Younas (@ikyounas) September 10, 2020
One woman took to Twitter to share some advice with other women and girls. “Dear Girls!
Make sure whenever you go out, please take a knife, red chili and more than 1 thousand rupees with you. So that in hour of disaster you can put red chili in eyes of front person and can self-defense with knife.. Moreover, you’ve rupees to come home.”
Dear Girls!
Make sure whenever you go out, please take a knife, red chili and more than 1 thousand rupees with you. So that in hour of disaster you can put red chili in eyes of front person and can self-defense with knife.. Moreover, you've rupees to come home#motorwayincident— Ammara_Ch? (@Ammara_C2544) September 10, 2020
Here’s what some other Twitter users had to say:
Rape is not just a women's issue. It's about men who stop behaving like human being & start behaving like Animals .. The only solution of these rapist is to hang them publicly….#PublicHangingOfRapists pic.twitter.com/4RO3zIGcrx
— Mian Omer ?? (@Iam_Mian) September 9, 2020
Where is human rights minister? Someone please wake her up and tell her that human rights are being violated all around, will she do something or just keep snoring over non issues??#PublicHangingOfRapists #HangRapist pic.twitter.com/sj2yK09voy
— ?????? ??????? (@SyedaSays__) September 10, 2020
These disgusting incidents continually try to tell us that this is NOT a women friendly country or safe anymore. The govt and justice system is blind and deaf. We can’t even protect the muslim community let alone minorities. Stone these monsters to death. #PublicHangingOfRapists
— Shahmeer (@Samyy_here) September 9, 2020
http://brownidentity.com/2020/09/07/ertugrul-star-engin-altan-duzyatan-heading-to-pakistan-this-october/
Yes, do it girls! Fed up of all these incidents. Government isn’t going to do anything!
Take care of yourself! #PublicHangingOfRapists #PublicHangingOfRapist #Pakistan #motorwayincident #hangrapistspublicly pic.twitter.com/ZkMtnQlkTS— Rabia Mahfooz | Social Media Manager (@RabeaMahfooz) September 10, 2020
