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Pakistan Village Council Orders Revenge Rape

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Tara Khandelwal
New Update
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A Pakistan village council ordered a man to rape a 16-year-old girl as revenge for his sister's rape earlier this month. Pakistani police arrested around 20 people in the Punjab province for the crime.

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The man's 12-year-old sister had been raped while working in the fields just south of Multan. After the attack, members of her family gathered together and decided to rape a member of the attacker’s family.

The second survivor’s mother says that on July 18, her 16-year-old daughter was taken away by three men at around 2 am. "We implored the culprits to leave my daughter alone, but threatened us that if anyone came forward, they would be killed," said the second survivor’s mother. 

The girl was dragged to the village panchayat and was raped in front of the men and her parents. Both rapes were reported at the government-run Violence Against Women Centre in Multan.

The police arrested 20 people outside of Multan and a hunt for seven more suspects is underway, according to local police official, Malik Rashid. The punishment for rape in Pakistan is the death penalty. Convicts may also face up to 25 years.

The incident occurred in the same district where Mukhtaran Mai was raped in early 2000 on the order of the village council. The story became international news and sparked much outrage. She was raped to avenge her 12-year-old brother's alleged affair with a woman from a rival clan.

According to a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2011, Pakistan is the world's third most dangerous country for women, with domestic abuse, sexual harassment, acid attacks and economic discrimination common. 

Last year, a new law passed in the Punjab province criminalised all forms of violence against women, whether domestic, psychological or sexual. It also established a toll-free hotline for reporting abuse, and mandated that shelters such as the one where the rapes in Multan were reported, be set up.

Also Read: Why I wrote Onaatah, the story of a rape survivor

Multan pakistan village council revenge rape
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