Pakistani Village Council Arrested After Ordering Teenage Girl’s Rape
This month the council told Mohammad Ashfaq, 20, to rape the 16-year-old girl after Mr. Ashfaq’s
family accused her brother of raping Mr. Ashfaq’s 12-year-old sister, the police said.
Those arrested on Thursday included 24 of the village council’s 27 members
and the 15-year-old boy accused of raping the younger girl, setting off the chain of events, the police said.
By SALMAN MASOODJULY 27, 2017
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani police arrested 25 people in a rural village on Thursday, after the village
council ordered a man to rape a teenage girl publicly to avenge the sexual assault of his sister.
The case was brought to the attention of the police in Punjab Province after the 16-year-old’s mother reported
that Mr. Ashfaq had carried out the rape on July 18 in Muzaffarabad, a village near the city of Multan.
Several junior officers and the Multan chief of police were suspended for negligence after Thursday’s arrests, said Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, the province’s chief minister, adding
that an investigation into the officers’ conduct would be carried out within 72 hours.
After the news of the arrests became public, Saqib Nisar, the chief justice of
Pakistan’s Supreme Court, ordered an inquiry by Punjab’s chief of police.
