DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Three men allegedly stripped a woman in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) to take revenge for her husband’s alleged affair with their sister.
According to the details, the incident took place on June 6 when the victim, “F”, was returning from a wedding ceremony. Armed men intercepted her, assaulted her in a “revenge attack” and fled, leaving the woman naked in the middle of a street full of onlookers.
A local resident told The Express Tribune that the attack was carried out after rumours of the alleged affair between the victim’s husband, Imdad Hussain, and the sister of the accused “spread like a wildfire in the village enraging the girl’s family”.
However, the resident said the police were initially reluctant to register an FIR, but relented a day later, registering the case under Section 354 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) with no mention of stripping.
The accounts of local residents contradict statements of the police who claim the victim was not stripped. “The woman had not been stripped but her clothes were torn apart by the accused who managed to escape and even threatened her of dire consequences,” SDPO Saddar Muhammad Adnan told The Express Tribune.
DPO DI Khan Najamul Hasnain confirmed that an FIR has been registered against the three men but one of the accused managed to secure pre-arrest bail from the court. The DPO added that he was personally looking into the matter.
Section 354 is generally invoked in an “assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty”.
“Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both,” the section reads.
