MITHI: Sindh High Court’s Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh on Tuesday took notice of suicide by an alleged gang-rape victim and summoned Mirpurkhas DIG Zulfikar Ali Mahar and Tharparkar SSP Hassan Sardar Niazi to appear in person in the court on Sept 22 and submit a detailed report on the incident.

The 20-year-old victim had taken her own life in Mehran Soomro village after an influential person reportedly stopped Kaloi police station’s SHO Ali Hassan Chang from registering a case against the four suspects who had subjected her to criminal assault after kidnapping her six days back. He asked the SHO not to proceed with legal action against the rapists as they had settled the matter through a jirga, said sources.

However, following wide media coverage of the incident the SSP ordered the SHO to register an FIR late on Monday night. The police then registered the case against two “unknown” and two nominated suspects on a complaint lodged by the victim’s brother under sections of 376, 322 and 365 of Pakistan Penal Code but did not make any arrest.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2022