21-year-old American woman gangraped at a posh resort in Pakistan

Multan (Pakistan) — Officials in Pakistan said that at least two people were arrested after a 21-year-old American woman reported being gang raped at a hotel while visiting a tourist resort in the eastern Punjab province.

On the night of July 17, a US national was sexually assaulted in a hotel room in Dera Ghazi Khan’s Fort Monroe hill station while on a trip. According to police, the woman was in Pakistan on a tourist visa and had been living there for the past seven months.

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Deputy Commissioner of Dera Ghazi Khan Anwar Baryar said, “The American girl had come to Fort Monroe from Karachi on the invitation of her social media friend Muzmal Sipra, whose house she visited on Sunday in Rajanpur district of Punjab, some 550 kilometres from Lahore.”

The victim reported the incident after filing a First Information Report (FIR) at the Border Military Police (BMP) station at the Fort Munro hill station. According to the FIR, Muzmal Sipra and Shehzad of Rajanpur raped the woman in a hotel room on the night of July 17th.

The complainant also stated that Sipra had threatened her not to pursue legal action against them.

The BMP filed a case against Dera Ghazi Khan residents Sipra, Shehzad, and Azan Khosa under Sections 376 and 292b of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The alarming frequency of cases against women in Pakistan poses a significant threat to women and raises concerns for authorities

In a recent report, the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) and the Centre for Research, Development and Communication identified a rise in domestic violence incidents and violence against women as two trends in Pakistan.

The study claims that throughout Pakistan in the month of June, 157 women were abducted, 112 were physically abused, and 91 were sexually assaulted.

Punjab recorded the most rape cases with 53, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 16, Sindh with 14, Islamabad with 6, and Balochistan with 2.

In the preceding week, Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province, reported a significant number of sexual assault incidents. The disturbing frequency of the instances forced the Pakistani police to assess the Gender-Based Violence Cell’s overall effectiveness.

As previously noted, Pakistan’s Global Gender Gap Index has gotten worse over time. Pakistan dropped to position 148 in 2018 from position 143 in 2017.

According to the ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2021,’ Pakistan ranked 153 out of 156 countries on the gender parity index, placing it among the bottom four.

According to a recent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) report, at least 11 rape cases are reported daily in Pakistan, with over 22,000 such incidents reported to police in the last six years (2015-21).

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