2 Held in Pakistani Woman’s Rape

Police arrested two men Saturday in connection with the gang rape of a woman who was assaulted by four men on the order of a Pakistani tribal council. One man is a suspect in the rape, and the other is a police official accused of failing to prevent the incident.

Faiz Bakhsh Mastoi was the second suspect arrested in connection with the June 22 rape. Police are searching for two other suspects.

Bakhsh Mastoi went to the office of a local newspaper in Multan, in Punjab province, and identified himself as one of those wanted in the case. “I’m surrendering at the newspaper office because I’m afraid that police may kill me,” Bakhsh Mastoi told reporters.

Police have been under pressure to capture the rapists after Pakistan’s Supreme Court accused local officers of negligence for failing to arrest them immediately after the crime was reported.

Police said the woman was raped by four men after a tribal council in Meerwala village ordered that her family be punished after her 11-year-old brother was seen walking unchaperoned with a girl from a different tribe, the Mastoi. The rape victim’s age has been the subject of dispute: Some accounts have said she is 18, while others say 30.

Police say the tribal verdict was illegal. But Pakistan has a tradition of tribal justice in which crimes or affronts to dignity are punished outside the framework of Pakistani law. The government has given the woman a compensation check for $8,200.

Meanwhile, Farman Ali, senior police superintendent in the city of Muzaffargarh, said Mohammed Iqbal, an assistant sub-inspector, had been arrested and charged with criminal negligence “for failing to follow the procedure” in the case.

Before the woman was raped, her brother was kidnapped by the Mastoi tribe as punishment. A police team led by Iqbal freed him but failed to arrest the tribesmen, who later took revenge on the boy’s sister, Ali said.

“It’s criminal negligence,” Ali said.