Girl gang-raped as 'punishment'
2002-07-01 21:20
Multan, Pakistan - A teenage girl was gang-raped in central Pakistan last month as "punishment" meted out by a tribal jury for her brother's alleged affair with a woman of a higher tribe, police said on Monday.
A Panchayat, or tribal jury, ordered four men, including one of the jurists, to rape the 18-year-old girl on June 22 in the village of Meerwala, 120km southwest of here, police said.
Meerwala lies 610km southwest of the capital Islamabad.
District police chief Malik Saeed Awan said authorities were informed of the publicly-ordered gang-rape several days after the incident.
He said four men took turns to sexually assault the girl inside a room. She was then ordered to return home naked before 1 000 onlookers.
The rape was to avenge the "insult" caused to a family of the Mastoi tribe by the girl's brother's alleged "illicit affair" with a woman of a higher social standing.
The girl and her brother were from the lower Gujjar tribe.
The Panchayat had threatened that all women in the accused's family would be raped unless the 18-year-old submitted herself to the public gang rape.
Awan said police were taking action against members of the Panchayat.
Lawyers visiting the tribal area on Sunday urged the authorities to prosecute the rapists and the jury. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA