F-9 Park rape: Islamabad police say security being improved, case being probed on ‘scientific basis’
The Islamabad police said on Monday that it was improving security arrangements at the capital’s F-9 Park, where a woman was raped at gunpoint last week.
On Feb 2, a first information report (FIR) was registered at the Margalla police station under Section 376 (punishment for rape). According to the complainant, she had gone to the park along with a male colleague when two men stopped them at gunpoint and took them towards a jungle.
She said the men beat her up, raped her and told her to “not come to the park at this time”.
On Sunday, the police issued a sketch of one of the suspects involved in the case.
In a statement issued today, the police said that the rape case was being investigated on “scientific basis”.
“The police along with the district administration are improving the security arrangements at the park,” it said, urging people visiting the park in the evening to limit themselves to well-lit areas.
NA expresses concern, seeks report
Separately, National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Parvez Ashraf sought a report from the Islamabad inspector general. According to a statement shared on Twitter, the matter was raised during today’s session and NA deputy speaker, who was chairing the session, issued the ruling.
“Both [the] speaker and deputy speaker have further said that both Parliament and government are fully pursuing the progress on the matter and hopefully the culprits will be brought to justice soon and they will [be] dealt with iron hands in accordance with the prevailing laws,” the statement said.
The letter issued to the Islamabad police chief, which was also shared on Twitter, said that the lower house of parliament had expressed “serious concern” over the incident. It called on the Islamabad IG furnish a “comprehensive report” within 24 hours.
The FIR
In the FIR filed, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the victim stated she had gone to the F-9 Park at about 8pm on Thursday along with her male colleague, Amjad, when “two men stopped [us] at gunpoint and took them towards a jungle”.
The victim then offered the men to take any belongings if they wanted but they “beat her” so that she should not make a sound and separated her from her colleague, the FIR stated.
She added when one of the men asked what her relationship with the colleague was, she answered in a “loud voice”, upon which he slapped her and threatened that he would “bring six to seven more people and you have no inkling of what they would do with you”.
The man said he would frisk her, to which she replied “go ahead, I don’t have a single penny”.
The suspect then ordered the victim to “be quiet, shook my hair aggressively, shoved me to the ground and committed a vile act”, the statement said.
It added that the armed man struck her leg with the gun when she tried to grab it and “threw my clothes at a distance so I could not run away”.
The victim said the other man, who was called by the first suspect and was “not of much age”, committed the same “wrong act” even though she had pleaded him not to and had offered money.
Afterwards, he asked the victim about what she does for a living and told her to “not come to the park at this time”, the FIR said.
It was further stated that the suspects “returned everything and even gave them a Rs1,000 note to not tell anyone anything”. “They then asked us to sit down and themselves ran away towards the jungle.”
The FIR highlighted that the victim was taken to the Pakistan Institute Of Medical Sciences hospital where her medical check-up was conducted.