Mother-of-two is gang-raped on Pakistani train by ticket inspector and two other men after being lured into first-class carriage
- A Pakistani woman taking a train from Multan to Karachi was gang raped
- Railway staff threatened the 25-year-old mother when she tried to escape
- Police arrested the three suspects earlier in the week and took DNA samples
Three men suspected of raping a young mother on board a moving train have been arrested in Pakistan.
The incident sparking outrage across the country happened on May 27 when the ticket inspector came to the victim’s carriage to ask if she wanted to move to a part of train with air conditioning.
The ticket checker lured the 25-year-old mother of two into the first-class compartment of the train headed from Multan to Karachi where other railways staff were waiting to rape her.
Pakistani paper Dawn said the men threatened her when she tried to escape.
Speaking at a press conference in Lahore, Inspector General of Railway Police Faisal Shahkar said the company should have run a background check on the employees before hiring them.
File photo: Pakistani protestors march during against an alleged gang rape of a woman
After the Bahaudin Zakaria Express arrived, the woman sat on the platform bench without moving, without anyone to meet her.
A railway police officer on duty asked her if she needed help, said Pakistani paper MM News. Railway police later brought her to the police station help centre where she reported the incident.
Police registered the case and took DNA samples, sending out teams to arrest the suspects.
Pakistani officers managed to contacted the young woman’s sister, who travelled to collect her.
The suspects had turned off their phones and fled into Punjab after the attack, which police said made it difficult to locate them.
But on Monday, police arrested two suspects and apprehended a third the following day. DNA samples are being taken to see if they are a match.
‘I wish to see those behind this cruel act hanged by their throats,’ a man told Pakistani broadcaster Geo News.
The woman, a resident of Orangi Town, has been taken to Jinnah Hospital Karachi for medical treatment while further investigation is ongoing.
She was travelling from her in-laws house to meet her husband in Karachi.
File photo: Welfare Trust hold placards during a protest against an alleged gang rape of a woman, in Karachi
‘Criminal and administrative action will be taken against the owner of the private company who was running the train,’ said the Railways police chief in a statement.
Sexual violence against women is common in Pakistan.
In April, an 18-year-old girl was repeatedly raped and impregnated by locals at gunpoint in the Khawajgan neighborhood of Gujrat.
More than 14,000 women have been raped in Pakistan in the past year, equating to nearly 11 per day, but fewer than three per cent of cases led to convictions.
‘This figure might be a tip of the iceberg because most cases aren’t reported,’ the National Bureau of Police told Al Jazeera.
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