Woman, 26, is raped and sexually assaulted after returning from UK to Pakistan for father’s funeral

A 26-year-old woman was allegedly raped and sexually assaulted over three days by a family friend after returning from Britain to Pakistan for her father’s funeral.

The woman had been staying with her father’s close friend Syed Taqveem Ahsan after the burial in the northern city of Lahore when she was allegedly attacked by Ahsan’s son. 

The victim told police that the man, who has also not been named, forced his way into her bedroom in the early hours of Saturday morning and sexually assaulted her – and continued to do so for the next three days, reports newspaper Dawn.  

Police in Lahore have since arrested the suspect after the woman reported the alleged assault. 

She told officers that she had returned to Pakistan from the UK six months ago to go to her father’s funeral. 

The woman claimed her step-mother had refused to allow her to stay at her house so she had instead gone to stay with Syed Taqveem Ahsan in the Wahdat Colony, an area in Lahore.    

It was here that she said Ahsan’s son had forced his way into her bedroom and raped and sexually assaulted her. 

He continued to attack her for three days, and the woman said the suspect would not allow her to visit the hospital after her health deteriorated after a day of abuse.

On Tuesday, after the three days of abuse, the woman called the police and reported the attacks to officers. 

The suspect, if convicted of rape, could face chemical castration after Pakistan brought in new laws last year.   

Chemical castration involves using medication to reduce testosterone and has been used for paedophiles in Indonesia since 2016 and child rapists in Poland since 2006.  

The 26-year-old woman’s case is sadly not rare in Pakistan as there have been more than 22,000 rape cases reported to police across the country in the last six years. 

In March, two men were sentenced to death by a Pakistani court for the gang rape of a French woman in front of her children in Lahore last year.    

Prosecutor Hafiz Asghar said the verdict in the case against Abid Malhi and his accomplice Shafqat Ali was issued inside the prison where they are being held in Lahore.  

Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta also sentenced the men to 14 years imprisonment, time that must be served before any executions can take place.  Appeals or commutations are likely.

According to the prosecutor and police, Malhi and Ali found the woman waiting for help after her car ran out of fuel. 

She had locked the car doors but the attackers broke a window and dragged her outside where they raped her at gunpoint in front of her terrified children. 

The men also stole money, jewellery, and bank cards before fleeing.

They were tracked down via mobile phone data, Asghar added, and arrested days after the incident. 

DNA samples taken from the crime scene matched theirs. 

The survivor identified the two men during the hearing, and Ali confessed to the crime before a magistrate.

Protests erupted after the lead investigator Umar Sheikh suggested the woman was to blame for the attack, saying she should have travelled on a busier road during the day and checked her petrol before setting out.  

Amnesty International released a message in support of protesters saying: ‘There have been too many victims and too few convictions of perpetrators in a criminal justice system characterised by impunity.’

And last month, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan sparked fury by blaming ‘temptation’ for sexual violence against women. 

In an interview with Axios HBO that aired in June, Mr Khan doubled down on remarks he made in April when he suggested during a Q&A session that ‘vulgarity’ was to blame for rising sexual violence.

Men are not ‘robots’, he said. ‘If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men… it’s common sense.’ 

Pakistan has witnessed an increase in incidents of rape since 2018, when a serial killer raped and murdered six-year-old Zainab Ansari in the eastern city of Kasur in Punjab province.

The case drew nationwide protests and Imran Ali, 24, was later sentenced to death and hanged in the case. 

However, ineffective investigation and prosecution of rape cases are commonplace in the country where sexual and gender-based violence towards women is pervasive.

Many women fear they will be shamed or persecuted by police and others if they come forward.

In recent years, increasingly-vocal and social media-savvy feminists have been challenging the social norms that influence the way rape cases are handled in Pakistan.