Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh has blamed the victim of yesterday’s motorway gang-rape incident for going through the route that she chose and said that she should have checked her petrol tank before getting on the said route.
The CCPO is set to lead the investigation of the gruesome incident.
Talking to Dunya News on the matter, Sheikh said that the woman had left Lahore’s Defence area at 12:30am for Gujranwala.
“I am surprised that a mother of three, a lone driver […] after leaving Defence should have taken the straight route from GT Road — a generally well-populated area,” he said.
The CCPO said that the victim should have “at least” checked her car’s fuel tank before getting on the route as there is no petrol pump along it.
Responding to the CCPO’s comments, Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari said that “nothing can rationalise the crime of rape”.
“For an officer to effectively blame a woman for being gang-raped by saying she should have taken the GT Road or question as to why she went out in the night with her children is unacceptable,” she said.
For an officer to effectively blame a woman for being gang raped by saying she should have taken the GT Road or question as to why she went out in the night with her children is unacceptable & have taken up this issue. Nothing can ever rationalise the crime of rape. That’s it.
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) September 10, 2020
