25 arrested in Pakistan after teenage girl’s rape

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani police arrested 25 people in a rural village Thursday, after the village council ordered a man to publicly rape a teenage girl to avenge the sexual assault of his sister.

Earlier this month, the council told Mohammad Ashfaq, 20, to rape the 16-yearold girl after Ashfaq’s family accused the girl’s brother of raping his 12-year-old sister, police said.

The case was brought to the attention of the police in Punjab province after the mother of the 16-year-old reported that Ashfaq had carried out the rape on July 18 in Muzaffarabad, a village near the city of Multan.

Some members of the council were present at the time of the rape, according to a complaint filed with the police by the girl’s mother.

The so-called honor rape, or vengeance rape, occurred after the council ruled that the rape of a minor family member was a fair punishment for the alleged rape of the 12-year-old.

Those arrested Thursday included 24 of the village council’s 27 members, and the 15-year-old boy accused of setting off the chain of events after being accused of raping the younger girl, police said.

Ashfaq remained at large Thursday.

Vengeance rapes to settle issues of family honor remain common in the southern part of Punjab province despite efforts by the government and rights groups to end the practice.

Such village councils are considered illegal, but residents in many poor and farflung regions are reluctant to go to the police.

Officials said authorities took action once the 16-yearold girl’s rape was reported to the province’s newly created Violence Against Women Center.

Salman Sufi, the director general of the Chief Minister’s Strategic Reforms Unit, who helped to open the women’s center, said both girls had been given medical examinations.

After the news of the arrests became public, Saqib Nisar, the chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, ordered Punjab’s chief of police to conduct an inquiry into the incident.

Several junior officers and the Multan chief of police were suspended for their negligence following Thursday’s arrests, said Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, the province’s chief minister, adding that an investigation into the conduct of the police would be carried out within 72 hours.

“I will not sit with ease until all accused are punished according to the law,” Sharif said at a news conference.