http://story.news.yahoo.com/ne ws?tmpl=story&u=/nm/200207 03/wl_nm/crime_pakistan_rape_d c_1
Anger at Reports Pakistan Jury Ordered Gang-Rape
Wed Jul 3, 2:46 PM ET
By Nasir Malick
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court expressed outrage on Wednesday at reports that a traditional village jury in Punjab province ordered the gang-rape of a teenage girl and summoned local officials to explain the affair.
The country's top court said local newspapers had reported that a crowd of villagers, too frightened to protest against the jury's ruling, had watched four men rape the girl inside a farmhouse and force her to walk home naked.
"This is a shocking incident in the 21st century concerning blatant violation of human rights as well as human dignity," the court said in a notice to the provincial police chief and other officials, whom it ordered to appear before it on Friday.
Local newspapers said the village jury, or panchayat, ordered the gang-rape on June 22 as punishment for an alleged love affair between the girl's brother and a girl from a high-caste tribe.
The police registered a complaint eight days later, after a delegation of lawyers met the local police chief and pressed for action.
Newspapers reported that the girl's family at Meerwala Jatoi village had hesitated to approach the police for fear of further retribution by the influential Mastoi tribe against her weaker Gujjar tribe.
Hundreds of people watched the gang-rape but "none dared to speak up against the injustice," the Daily Times newspaper reported. It quoted "some of them" as saying they had been threatened with death if they raised any objection.
The Supreme Court said it had asked the Punjab police chief and three other police officers to appear before it on Friday in the provincial capital Lahore to explain "the action taken by them in this case."
Police said they had arrested all eight members of the panchayat, a traditional tribal forum for settling local disputes without going to police or a court, but were still hunting for four alleged rapists.
Azhar Abbas, the village police chief, told Reuters the panchayat members had been accused of "abetment," which carries the same punishment as rape -- punishable with death under Pakistan's Islamic laws.
OUTRAGE TO SOCIETY
The Alliance for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws, which brings together several local rights groups, called the incident an "outrage to society."
"That such a decree was issued by a tribal jury and carried out with impunity is not only a monumental crime and violation of the rights of the girl but also an outrage for society and an affront to the state of Pakistan," an Alliance statement said.
The respected Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an alliance member, said in a separate statement that the gang-rape on the order of a panchayat presented an "alarming picture of the atrocities" committed against women.
An Interior Ministry official said strict action would be taken against those "who have brought shame on society and on the nation."
The recently issued HRCP report for 2001 estimates a woman is raped every two hours in Pakistan, but says most sexual assaults go unreported because of the social stigma and the impossibility of proving the charges.
In populous Punjab province, a woman is raped every six hours and a woman gang-raped every fourth day, yet only 321 rape cases were reported to police last year, it said.