Following a statement from Pakistan's lead police investigator, Chief Umar Sheikh, who suggested a mother was at fault for being gang-raped on one of Pakistan's most secure highways, several protests are planned across the country and there are calls for the police investigator's resignation and an apology.
According to investigators, the victim was assaulted and gang-raped by several men in front of her two children after she ran out of petrol outside of Lahore.
Sheikh blamed the mother for her assault on one of Pakistan’s most secure highways, claiming that she should have driven with a male companion.“No-one in Pakistani society would allow their sisters and daughter to travel alone so late”, Sheikh claimed.
He further blamed the mother, a France resident, stating she “mistook that Pakistani society is just as safe” as her home country, stating she should have taken a safer highway called the GT.
However, the highway the victim chose to take was built to replace centuries-old GT road, it is equipped with CCTV and a dedicated police force and when she ran out of fuel she contacted that same police force.
Khadija Siddiqi, a lawyer and human rights activists stated that the police chief's comments were part of an unfortunate and very rampant culture of victim-blaming in Pakistan.
Read more from the Daily Mail and Reuters
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