Pakistan Investigating Rape Ordered by Tribal Council

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday summoned top police and government officials from Punjab province after it was revealed that a tribal council there allowed an 18-year-old woman to be gang raped in order to punish her family after her brother was seen walking with a girl from a higher-class tribe.

The June 22 rape has outraged human rights groups, and senior police and provincial government officials are visiting the tribe’s village, Meerwala, to investigate.

The victim recalled Wednesday how the ordeal began.

For two nervous hours, she worried for her 11-year-old brother as their father pleaded before the tribal council that the boy had done no wrong in walking unchaperoned with a girl from a different tribe. But the council was unconvinced, and ordered a brutal punishment: The boy’s sister would be gang raped to shame her family.

Shortly afterward, four council members took turns raping her in a mud hut as hundreds of people stood outside laughing and cheering.

“I touched their feet. I wept. I cried. I said I taught the holy Koran to children in the village, therefore don’t punish me for a crime which was not committed by me. But they tore my clothes and raped me one by one,” the young woman said.

As she spoke, her mother, Allah Bachai, sat beside her at their home, wailing.

Asef Hayyat, Punjab’s deputy inspector general of police, said the top officer at the local police station had been suspended and several close relatives of the suspects were detained to pressure the perpetrators into surrendering. “We will soon arrest the real culprits,” Hayyat said.

Pakistan has a tradition of tribal justice in which crimes or affronts to dignity are punished outside the framework of Pakistani law. The private Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has demanded an end to punishments by tribal councils.

Rana Ijaz, the Punjab government’s law minister, was among officials who visited the village Wednesday. He promised a full investigation and assistance to the victim’s family.

“This is a very sad and shocking incident,” Ijaz told reporters.

The victim’s father, Ghulam Farid, told of how he pleaded with the tribal council for clemency. “I begged them ... my daughter is a very pious girl,” he said. “I reminded them, ‘She has been teaching holy Koran to your children, you are fully aware of her character.’ ”

But, he added, “nobody supported me. There was no one to protect my daughter.”