Lal Masjid Refers Gang Rape Case to Govt
ISLAMABAD: The Complaint Centre at Lal Masjid has referred a gang rape incident involving two women of Jhelum as a “test-case” to the government. The mosque administration also announced that the case will be decided in its Shariat Court if the government fails.
Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, Naib Khateeb of Lal Masjid Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi called the case a challenge to the Women Protection Act and demanded of the Lahore High Court chief justice to take suo motto action. He demanded that a case be registered against the accused in Islamabad.
Maulana Ghazi said Azhar Iqbal Awan, an influential person from Jhelum, who is also a police agent and has close links with the district Nazim, ruined the entire family of Muhammad Aslam.
Instead of seeking police help, the victim Muhammad Aslam has come to the Jamia Hafsa to seek justice and refuge for his daughters, because Awan is an influential person, Maulana Ghazi said.
Giving details of the incident, Maulana Ghazi said Azhar Iqbal Awan first destroyed the life of Nadeem, son of Aslam, by making him a drug addict and then he implicated Aslam’s wife in a concocted drug case.
Maulana Ghazi said Aslam’s three daughters –- Saima, 18, Salma, 17, and Samina, 16, were left in the house alone after their mother was put behind the bar. Awan allegedly called Salma to his home telling her that he would arrange a meeting with her mother in the jail. However, the accused raped Salma after intoxicating her at his home. Iqbal also filmed the girl in naked condition. Afterwards Iqbal repeatedly raped Salma by blackmailing her.
Maulana Ghazi said that later Awan forged a fake Nikkah certificate that was cancelled by the Maulvi sahib after 10 days. He said Awan along with his nephew Imran, alias Mani, gang-raped Salma’s younger sister Samina, who got pregnant. A subsequent medical checkup confirmed the incident. “Now they have come to us to seek justice,” Maulana Ghazi said, adding that “although they have a medical certificate from Jehlum for our satisfaction, we have had a medical checkup of the girls from the Holy Family Hospital and a private lab.”
Maulana Ghazi also showed the medical certificate to journalists which confirmed that 16-year-old Samina was pregnant. “The girls are with us, they will stay in the Jamia Hafsa till they get justice,” he said. “However the police can take them for interrogation if they want.” He produced the girls, Salma and Samina, who had come with their parents from Jhelum, saying that they had been repeatedly raped by Awan.
Maulana Ghazi said, “We have been receiving scores of complaints but we decided to send this rape case to the government as a test and we hope that justice will be provided to the victim on priority basis.”
“We will be compelled to take action if the government failed to tackle it urgently,” he added. “According to the Hudood laws, too, the government is bound to solve the issue.” Maulana Ghazi requested Lahore High Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, who himself belongs to Jehlum, to take suo motto notice of the case.
Maulana Ghazi said District Nazim Chaudhry Farrukh Altaf should also look into the matter. Shahbaz Hussain, Minister for Population and MNA from the area, must also take notice of the issue and see what was happening to the poor masses in his constituency.
This is another Slap on the Ugly face of Secular Pakistan.