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Horror and outrage in Pakistan as mother ‘gang-raped’ in front of children on highway 

In this photograph taken in Islamabad on March 8, 2020, activists shout slogans during a rally to mark International Women's Day. (AFP/File)
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Updated 10 September 2020
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Horror and outrage in Pakistan as mother ‘gang-raped’ in front of children on highway 

  • Police say woman’s car developed a fault en route Gujranwala from Lahore and she was waiting for help when she was assaulted by two 'robbers'
  • Social media users across Pakistani cried for revenge, saying the culprits should be publicly hanged as rights advocates called for reform 
Updated 10 September 2020
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Cries of shock and rage rung out across Pakistan on Thursday over the alleged rape of a woman by two ‘robbers’ in front of her children on a main highway, leading social media users and television pundits to call for the suspects to be publicly hanged. 
Violence against women is endemic in Pakistan, but the brutality of the recent attack has shocked even those inured to the rising wave of sexual crimes and prompted thousands of people to speak up on social media, with #PublicHangingOfRapists becoming the top trend in the country on Thursday. 
Local media reported that the woman was travelling from Lahore to Gujranwala, main cities in Pakistan’s populous Punjab province, on Tuesday night when her car developed a fault on the motorway. 
“She got a call from a relative ... who asked her to call the police helpline for help while he also left from home to reach her,” the website of Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported. “When he reached the location, he found the woman terrified with her clothes stained with blood.”
Local media quoted police officials as saying two armed men who had found the woman alone on the road took her and her children to a nearby field and gang-raped her on gunpoint. Newly appointed Inspector-General of Punjab Police Inam Ghani said police had identified the village the suspects came from and secured “evidence” that would lead authorities to the culprits. He shared no further details.

Human rights minister Shireen Mazari wrote on Twitter that she had immediately sought an "action report" from police:

Pakistan’s parliament passed a new law against child abuse in March this year, two years after the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl that shocked the country. 
Zainab Ansari’s body was found in a garbage dumpster in Kasur district near the eastern city of Lahore in 2018, sparking large protests and accusations of negligence by authorities.
While the new law will introduce a penalty of life imprisonment for child abuse, on Thursday, as news of the gang-rape incident spread, popular public opinion - reflected on social media sites and interviews by media with people on the streets - was that the culprits should be hanged. 
Many took to Twitter to say that such a heinous crime could only be punished with the harshest of punishments which would send a strong signal to potential rapists that assaults on women would not be tolerated.
Azhar Mashwani, an advisor to the Punjab government on digital media, tweeted with the hashtags #PublicHangingOfRapists and #HangRapistsPublicly:

Other social media users expressed the same sentiment:

Some rights activists, however, refused to support the calls for public revenge, calling for reforms in the criminal justice system and better protections for women and children:
Journalist and researcher Nazish Brohi wrote:
“Okay, let's say we hang them. Who will you hang? Those convicted by court, right? Less than 4% of those accused of rape get convicted in Pakistan.”

Digital rights advocate and journalist Farieha Aziz wrote:
“The man convicted for Zainab's murder was hanged. Has that stopped child molestation, rape, murder? It never does.” 

Sadaf Khan from Media Matters for Democracy said:
“Come on, let us all hang the symptoms and forget the disease. What matters is optics anyways.”

Pakistan PM visits Quetta after militant attack kills 18 soldiers

Updated 4 sec ago
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Pakistan PM visits Quetta after militant attack kills 18 soldiers

  • Major militant attack in southwestern Kalat district killed 18 Pakistani security forces on Saturday
  • Shehbaz Sharif to meet injured soldiers, discuss law and order situation with provincial leadership
Updated 4 sec ago
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has left for the provincial capital of Quetta for a day-long visit where he will be briefed about the law and order situation in southwestern Balochistan, his office said on Monday, days after a militant attack killed 18 soldiers in the province.
The Pakistan army said on Saturday 18 security forces had been killed while trying to thwart an “act of terrorism” in the insurgency-plagued Balochistan province, adding that 23 militants were killed in subsequent clearance operations. 
The army said the attack took place in Kalat district’s Mangochar town on the night between Friday and Saturday when militants attempted to establish roadblocks in the area. The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of the most prominent separatist groups operating in the southwestern province, claimed responsibility for the attack. 
“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif leaves for Quetta on a day-long visit,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement. It said Sharif will meet security forces personnel who were injured while battling militants in Kalat last week. 
“The prime minister will also meet the provincial leadership in Quetta and will be briefed on law and order,” the statement added. 
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and Power Minister Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari are accompanying Sharif, the PMO said. 
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by landmass and rich in mineral resources, has long faced a low-level insurgency led by separatist groups like the BLA, who accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources while neglecting the local population.
Pakistani governments have for decades denied these allegations, saying they have prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.

The BLA has emerged as a significant security threat in recent months, carrying out major attacks in Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan and targeting security forces, ethnic Punjabis they consider outsiders in Balochistan, as well as Chinese interests and nationals working on investment projects.

Over 50 people, including security forces, were killed in August last year in a string of attacks in Balochistan claimed by the BLA. Last month, dozens of fighters of the separatist outfit gained control of a small town in Khuzdar for hours. They snatched weapons and vehicles from the local Levies paramilitary force and set the Levies station on fire.

Violence by Baloch separatist factions, primarily the BLA, killed about 300 people last year, according to official statistics, marking an escalation in the decades-long conflict.
 

Topics: Pakistan Quetta

Pakistan, Iran chambers of commerce sign agreement aimed at increasing exports to $10 billion

Updated 03 February 2025
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Pakistan, Iran chambers of commerce sign agreement aimed at increasing exports to $10 billion

  • Governors of Pakistan’s Punjab and Iran’s Razavi Khorasan provinces attend signing of MoU in Lahore
  • Pakistan, Iran have often been at odds over militancy and instability along shared, porous border 
Updated 03 February 2025
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s and Iran’s chambers of commerce have signed an agreement aimed at increasing exports between the two countries to $10 billion, state-run media reported on Monday, as the two sides eye increasing trade to move past strained ties. 

The development takes place after Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of general staff of Iran’s armed forces, visited Pakistan last month to hold talks with the country’s civil and military leadership on border management, economic cooperation and regional issues. 

Pakistan and Iran have often been at odds over instability along their shared, porous border and routinely trade blame for not rooting out militancy. Tensions surged in January last year when Pakistan and Iran exchanged airstrikes, with both claiming to target alleged militant hideouts in each other’s territory.

“A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Mashhad Chamber of Commerce and Industries in Lahore,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. 

“The purpose of the MoU is to take bilateral volume of exports to ten billion dollars between the two countries,” the statement said. 

It said the governor of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, Sardar Saleem Haider Khan and the governor general of Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province, Gholam Hossein Mozaffari, both attended the signing ceremony.

Khan said his Iranian counterpart expressed “great interest” in Pakistani products, stressing that both countries should focus on expanding trade relations.

“He said the Iranian Governor has assured to consider reducing tourist and business visa fees and improving facilities for easier travel and trade,” the report said. 

Later, both governors inaugurated a one-day shopping festival organized by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Expo Center Lahore.

Iran’s late president Ebrahim Raisi toured Pakistan in April 2024 as both countries sought to mend ties after unprecedented tit-for-tat military strikes. 

During Raisi’s three-day visit, the two governments signed MoUs and agreements covering different fields including trade, science and technology, agriculture, health, culture and judicial matters. 

Raisi had said that the volume of trade between the two countries “is not acceptable at all” and that they should enhance bilateral trade to $10 billion. 

Topics: Pakistan Iran Ties

Pakistan begins first anti-polio drive of 2025 to vaccinate over 45 million children

Updated 03 February 2025
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Pakistan begins first anti-polio drive of 2025 to vaccinate over 45 million children

  • Around 400,000 polio vaccinators will administer vaccines door-to-door to children, says official 
  • Pakistan has reported only one case this year but last year, it reported an alarming 73 cases of disease
Updated 03 February 2025
Shahjahan Khurram

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has formally kicked off its first anti-polio drive of 2025 today, Monday, to vaccinate over 45 million children under the age of five, the health ministry said as the country hopes to stem the spread of the disease. 

The Pakistan polio program conducts multiple mass vaccination drives in a year, and this year’s first anti-polio vaccination campaign is expected to continue till Feb. 9. Pakistan has assembled teams of around 400,000 polio workers to go door-to-door countrywide to vaccinate children below five years of age, Coordinator for Health Dr. Mukhtar Bharath said. 

Polio is a paralyzing disease that has no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five are essential to provide children high immunity against the disease.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched Pakistan’s first anti-polio drive of 2025 during an event in Islamabad on Sunday, administering polio drops to children during the ceremony. 

“During the polio campaign, more than 45 million children across the country will be administered polio drops,” the Ministry of Health’s spokesperson said. 

Dr. Bharath called on parents to support polio vaccinators and ensure their children received the vaccines. 

“It is the national and moral responsibility of parents to vaccinate all children under the age of five,” he said. 

Pakistan has reported only one polio case this year. However, last year the South Asian country reported 73 cases with Balochistan province reporting 27, the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh reporting 22 case each, and Pakistan’s capital city and eastern Punjab province each reporting one case of the disease throughout the year. 

Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the disease is endemic. 

Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain. In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies.

Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
 

Topics: Pakistan Polio

Pakistan busts international drug gang, frees family ‘framed’ for smuggling narcotics

Updated 03 February 2025
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Pakistan busts international drug gang, frees family ‘framed’ for smuggling narcotics

  • The family was detained in Saudi Arabia after their luggage tag was swapped by the gang at the airport
  • Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praises Anti-Narcotics Force, thanks Saudi government for their cooperation
Updated 03 February 2025
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has busted an international drug gang and arrested nine suspects who had “framed” a Pakistani family in their bid to smuggle narcotics to Saudi Arabia, the Pakistani interior ministry said on Sunday.

Farhana Akram, a resident of Lahore, had traveled to Saudi Arabia with her four family members, Haroon Ali, Malik Aziz, Fouzia Aziz, and Zakria Begum, on December 23, when the gang swapped Akram’s luggage tag with the help of an airport staff, according to the interior ministry.

Consequently, Farhana and her family members were detained in Saudi Arabia. The ANF investigated the case and detained a porter after viewing airport footage, which led to the arrest of nine suspects, including the ringleader.

“The ANF provided evidence to Saudi authorities, which led to the release of the innocent family,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and ANF Director-General Maj. Gen. Abdul Mueed visited the affected family at their residence and congratulated them on their return home.

“The pain the family endured is indescribable,” he said, praising the ANF and the Saudi authorities for their cooperation. “I extend special thanks to the Saudi government.”

Naqvi said the ANF had initiated a nationwide crackdown against smugglers, cautioning citizens to remain vigilant against individuals offering free Umrah packages as such offers could be deceitful.

Separately, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said on Sunday it had arrested 10 persons deported from Saudi Arabia for allegedly begging in the Kingdom, despite traveling there on Umrah visas.

The trend of beggars abusing visas to beg in foreign countries has Pakistan worried that it could impact genuine visa-seekers and particularly religious pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia. According to widespread media reports, Riyadh raised this issue with Islamabad at various forums last year.

Pakistanis are the second-largest expatriate community in the Kingdom, with over 2.5 million living and working in Saudi Arabia, the top source of remittances to the South Asian country.

Topics: Pakistan narcotic

Saudi Arabia’s KSrelief continues relief efforts in Pakistan, Lebanon and Syria

Updated 02 February 2025
Arab News
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Saudi Arabia’s KSrelief continues relief efforts in Pakistan, Lebanon and Syria

  • The charity distributed 2,160 food packages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Battagram and Buner districts as well as Sukkur in Sindh
  • The aid was given to families in flood-affected areas as part of the Saudi organization’s Food Security Support Project 2025
Updated 02 February 2025
Arab News

RIYADH: The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center’s (KSrelief) humanitarian and relief efforts continue with the distribution of food, hygiene supplies as well as the provision of emergency transport services.

In in Ma’arrat Misrin of Syria’s Idlib Governorate, KSrelief handed out 672 food boxes and 672 hygiene kits as part of the second phase of the food aid and hygiene kit distribution project for populations affected by the earthquake in 2025.

In Lebanon’s Akkar Governorate and Miniyeh district, the aid agency during the past week distributed 175,000 bags of bread to Syrian and Palestinian refugees as well as residents of host communities. The initiative was part of the fourth phase of Al-Amal Charitable Bakery Project in the country.

In the Battagram and Buner districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, as well as the Sukkur district in Sindh province of Pakistan, 2,160 food packages were given to families in flood-affected areas as part of the Food Security Support Project 2025

Meanwhile, KSrelief delivered 125 tons of dates to Sudan as a gift from the Kingdom.

In north Lebanon, the KSrelief-funded ambulance service of Subul Al-Salam Social Association in the Miniyeh district carried out 61 missions during the past week, including transporting patients to and from hospitals and treating burn injuries.

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