HYDERABAD:
A minor girl, allegedly subjected to rape and a post-rape torture in which she sustained multiple wounds of cuts with a sharp object including one on her tongue, has booked a young man in the rape FIR at Chautiarion police station in Sanghar district. The accused Wazeer Rajar, son of an influential and politically affiliated landlord Waris Rajar, remains at large.
The initial medical report by government hospital Sanghar has established rape and torture with the victim Shadbano Mallah. According to 15-year-old complainant, she was Rajar’s friend for a couple of years after which she parted ways with him some months ago. During their friendship, the two used to meet often.
She narrated that eight to 10 days before the incident Rajar and she became friendly again. On the night of January 12, she left her home with Rajar on his bike. The accused took her to his agricultural field where he committed ‘zina’.
“Later we had a brief chit-chat during which he became furious and started to assault me. He gave me cuts with a blade,” she stated in the FIR. According to her, all along he kept expressing his resentment over the victim because she had dared to severe their relationship. “I will make you to hide your face from the world.”
The accused after alleged rape and torture dropped her at her home. Muharram Mallah, father, took her daughter to Chautiarion police station around 3am and lodged his initial complaint. The police sent the victim with a medical letter to the hospital.
SHO Azam Bhangwar informed that the family did not return to the police station after registering the NC in the wee hours of Thursday. The next morning Hakimzadi Mallah, mother, blamed a son of landlord Waris Rajar for rape. She, however, changed her statement by the evening saying that her daughter sustained injuries because she had fallen from a moving motorbike.
However, the local community and civil society took to social media to express their outrage over the incident. The Inspector General of Sindh Police Javed Alam Odho later took notice of the incident on Wednesday, directing Sanghar district’s SSP Abdi Baloch to provide protection to the victim and her family and to bring the culprit to the book. Odho asked the cops to take action against the accused as per the statement of the victim.
Human Rights Council of Pakistan has condemned the incident besides demanding immediate action against Rajpar who remains at large. The victim’s family and their supporters have blamed the police for deliberately delaying Rajar’s arrest.
This incident has transpired less than a week after the rape case of a minor girl during police custody in Jacobabad district, in which six cops have been accused and arrested. The court has transferred investigation of that case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
News Published in Express Tribune on January 23, 2025.
