PAKISTAN: Police protection continues for teachers accused of gang raping their students

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that senior police officials are preventing an investigation into the alleged gang rapes of female students by a group of teachers. The family of one victim is being pressured to settle outside legal channels in a feudal jirga court, despite directions from the Chief Minister of Sindh to have the accused arrested. Their case has been compromised by local police, who willfully delayed the girl’s medical examination by a week. This incident shows the freedom enjoyed by Sindh police to work against the law and the public on behalf of wealthy patrons. If the accused men had been arrested after the first allegation of rape, other young girls may not have suffered the same violation. The latest victim’s family is now being threatened and needs urgent protection and legal support. 

CASE DETAILS: 

According to information received from the victim and other local sources, Miss Asma Khand, 15, was gang raped by three of her school teachers on the morning of October 10. A fellow student and relative of the rapists lured her to a house near the school. After being invited in by the home owner, Mr. Istikhar Jatt, Asma was tied up and raped by Shoukat Jatt, Imtiaz Rajpar and Ghulam Mustafa Rajpar. 

That evening at Faiz Ganj police station the head officer (SHO), Mr. Mohammad Husain Samtio, denied Asma medical treatment and refused to file a First Information Report (FIR) – as is required by law. Asma’s parents have been advised by the school headmaster not to complain to the police to avoid reprisals from the teacher’s powerful landlord connections and damage to their daughter’s reputation. Allegations in the media have since suggested that the headmaster’s own daughter was raped by the same men in July. 

A checkup was finally authorized on 16 October after civil and student-led street protests, but a week had passed and much of the criminal evidence had gone. However the rape was confirmed and an FIR was finally filed. Yet because two of the accused had reportedly taken protective interim bail from the sessions court before their arrest, police only arrested one of the accused, Mr. Shaukat Jatt, and Istikhar Jatt, the house owner. Rape is a non-bailable offence in Pakistan, but corrupt police are often able to arrange bail for perpetrators by selecting the information given to the judge. Their bail was extended on 28 October until the 31 October. 

After the FIR was filed we are told that the police misconduct grew more extreme: district police officer (DPO) Gul Mohammad Shar and several other officers tried to pressure the victim’s father to take the case to a jirga, an illegal tribal court, instead. The jirga in this area is partly run by the father of two of the perpetrators. 

Using a lawyer, Asma’s father was able to file a constitutional petition with the Sindh High Court, where the judge has summoned the negligent officers today (30 October) to explain their actions. On October 16 the provincial chief minister also reportedly directed various officers – the Sukkur regional police officer and deputy inspector of police, and the district police officer of Khairpur Mirs – to act on the matter and report to him directly. Yet two accused rapists remain at large. Asma has had to leave the area because of threats from them and local police; officers continue to question her father on her whereabouts. 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: 

Local media reports claim that cases of rape and abuse have been connected to these three teachers for a number of years – ever since a local bodies system was introduced that gives much more power to local representatives (mainly powerful landlords), and thus their relatives. The men were neither arrested nor removed from their positions in the school. The Rajpars are part of a powerful local family; their brothers are the chairmen of the union council and town council respectively. Local activists and parents of protesting students have said that they were threatened both by police officers and known henchmen of the landed aristocracy. 

It appears that the rule of law has entirely broken down in this district, with uniformed officials paying little or no heed to it, and the high court and provincial minister unable to check their power – or that of the local landlords. In any semi-functional system strong disciplinary action would be needed along with a thorough provincial-level investigation for corruption. In this case however, it appears that corruption is so entrenched that a local investigation could not be impartial, and intervention on a higher scale is urgently required. The criminal activity and institutional weakness exposed by these events warrants a top-level probe, with a view to making sweeping, overdue reforms. 

This is particularly urgent when considering the total lack of protection or redress so far being given to minors. That such impunity can be enjoyed by the known rapists of young girls for years shows the lethal stranglehold of a small group of wealthy men over a society, and its children. 

The harm of Pakistan’s entrenched anti-women sentiment is also brought to light in this case, with the officers and the headmaster using the fragility of the victims’ reputations as an excuse not to take their attackers to court. It is clear that much more work needs to be done on this issue by the government in Pakistan, particularly in removing the stigma of rape from its victims and placing it on its perpetrators. The first step will be to hold all those accused of rape legally accountable. Any official attempting to intervene in such a case must be held criminally liable. 

This year the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has logged numerous cases of police and judicial negligence in support of those who beat, rape or abduct women (among them UAC-142-2009; UAC-120-2009; UAC-108-2009; UAC-084-2009; UAC-079-2009; UAC-051-2009) We have also issued many appeals and statements exposing the criminal violence dealt out to many women by jirgas, some of which, like the case of young Taslim Solangi, who was set upon by dogs and shot by her uncle, took place in the same district. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 

Please write of your concerns to the authorities listed below, calling for the thorough investigation of the perpetrators and the police officers responsible, and the necessary legal action. Please call for all possible forms of protection, compensation and redress for the victims. 

The AHRC has also written separate letters to the UN Special Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, and on the independence of judges and lawyers and the Chairperson of the committee on the rights of the child calling for intervention into this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER