Amid an alarming rise in sexual assault cases against women in Pakistan, another incident came to light where a female police constable was raped by her male colleague.
The accused also filmed the video and made the videos viral on social media. The incident took place in Hala town near Matiari on Friday.
The constable had called her to the official residence under the pretext of working on an inquiry against a certain suspect, Dawn reported, citing the victim.
“He gave her a cup of tea mixed with some sedative drug, which made her fall unconscious and then he raped her and made videos of the episode,” the media outlet reported, quoted the victim as saying.
The victim further said that her tormentor spread the videos on social media and even tried to blackmail her.
After the victim filed an FIR against him under Sections 336, 337, 356b, 506 PPC on Friday, Hala police arrested the alleged rapist, constable Yousuf Bilal.
Hyderabad range DIGP Syed Pir Mohammad Shah said that the alleged rapist would be punished according to law and speedy justice would be served to the victim, adding that women police officials have been made duty officers at several police stations across the province for the first time in Sindh police’s history on the directives of Sindh IGP Ghulam Nabi Memon but such tragic incidents would only prove discouraging for them.
Pakistan has reported a large number of cases of sexual assault in the previous week.
In a recent case, a pregnant woman was recently gang-raped by five men in the Punjab province. In another such case, a 25-year-old Karachi woman was gang-raped by three men on a moving train. Such incidents put the spotlight on Pakistan’s poor record with women’s rights.
In fact, a recent research report by the Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO) and the Centre for Research, Development, and Communication (CRDC) stated Pakistan reported a maximum number of cases of women assault in the previous month.
It included cases of kidnapping of women, rape, and violence against women.
As per the report, a total of 57 cases of rape were reported in the media out of which Punjab reported the highest of 38 cases, while Sindh reported 13 cases followed by 3 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 2 cases from Islamabad.
Meanwhile, it was earlier reported that Pakistan’s Global Gender Gap Index has worsened over time. In 2017, Pakistan ranked 143, slipping to 148 in 2018.
According to the last year’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2021’, Pakistan ranked 153 out of 156 countries on the gender parity index, that is, among the last four.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)’s recent report said that in Pakistan, at least 11 rape cases are reported daily with over 22,000 such incidents reported to police in the last six years (2015-21).