Woman Gang-Raped Inside Moving Train In Pakistan By Staff Members, Three Arrested
In a shocking incident, a 25-year-old Pakistani woman was gang-raped inside a train heading from Multan to Karachi by three staff members.
The incident happened onboard the Bahauddin Zakaria Express on May 27.
Raped in the pretext of helping the victim
The woman, a divorcee, had come to Muzaffargarh district of Punjab, to meet her two minor children. However, the meeting was denied by her husband and in-laws.
“Under this stress she left for her hometown Karachi by train. Since she was alone, the suspects took advantage of her and gang raped her," the IG railways said.
She reportedly boarded the train without a ticket and was traveling on the economy class when the ticket-checker offered her a seat in the air-conditioned compartment. The checker then took her to the other compartment where some staff members took turns to sexually assault the woman and threatened her with dire consequences when she tried to escape.
"The woman boarded the train without a ticket. Ticket Checker Zahid told her that he could arrange a berth for her in an AC compartment. On the pretext of helping her, Zahid took her to an AC compartment and along with two others, gang raped her," the FIR stated.
The victim later reported her ordeal to the railways police, who registered a case and constituted teams to arrest the suspects.
All three accused arrested
"The FIR has been registered under Section 377s (punishment for rape) and 34 (common intent) of the Pakistan Penal Code," said the police.
Based on the woman's complaint the police have arrested all the three suspects in the case.
The arrested have been identified as Zahid and Zohaib (ticket checkers) and Aqib (in-charge of ticket checkers).
A medical check-up of the victim confirmed rape.?
"The victim's clothes have been taken into custody, while swab samples have been taken for semen serology, DNA profiling and cross-matching," said Summaiya Syed, additional police surgeon at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi.
Train operated by private firm
According to Inspector General Pakistan Railways Faisal Shahkaar, all the three arrested men were employees of a private firm that operated the train.
Reportedly, there was no deployment of the railways police personnel in the train for safety and security of passengers.
Shahkaar said the train was operated by a private firm and deployment of security guards was its duty which it did not fulfill. For this reason the firm's chief executive officer has also been taken into custody, he said.
(With agency inputs)
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