Pak woman gangraped on panchayat orders

A Pakistani woman was allegedly gangraped by four men on the orders of a panchayat in Muzaffar-garh district of Punjab province in revenge for “dishonouring” their family.

Bachal Mai (47) of Lundi Pitafi village, near Jatoi, was allegedly brutalised because her husband’s younger brother Bilal had reportedly developed illicit relations with a girl.

The police said Bilal and his brother (husband of Bachal Mai) were earlier taken into custody for sexually assaulting the girl on the complaint of her father Noor Mohammed.

Ms Mai along with her cousins said heads of panchayat called them for negotiation with aggrie-ved party on January 28.

Upon this call, Ms Mai, her mother in-law Anwar Mai and the male members of their family went to Noor Muhammad’s house, father of the girl with whom Bilal was reportedly in a relationship. The panchayat leaders asked them to go into Mr Noor’s house but they did not let the males go with them. As Ms Mai and her mother in-law entered the house, seven persons attacked them. Four of the attackers overpowered Ms Mai and took her to a room where they allegedly raped her.

She claimed the attackers also bit on her breasts. When their relatives listened to the hue and cry, they forced their entry to the home, broke the door of the room to get her freed from the clutches of the assaulters, Ms Mai said.

During this heads of Panchayat disappeared from the scene.