CASE STUDIES

WAR is committed to providing free legal and psychological aid to survivors of rape, incest and domestic violence. During 2006, WAR plans to take on 20 new cases of rape and 5 new cases of domestic violence. WAR helps the survivors and their families in getting the accused arrested, prosecuted in a court of law until he is convicted and punished for his crime. A brief description of three cases is given herewith to highlight the nature of the crime. Many of the survivors are innocent children some as young as 4 years of age. The cases are named after the accused, while the name of the survivors is never mentioned to protect their identity.

Yousuf Case: S had fallen on hard times. She was married to a man who did not earn so well and she lived with her in-laws and her children while her mother-in-law and husband went out to make a living for the entire family. S’s father-in-law, Yousuf (aged 55), used to be present at home with S and her children, as S used to busy herself tending to his needs and those of her children. One day, when the mother-in-law and husband were out, Yousuf went to S’s bedroom, expressing his wish to have sex with her and asking her to be his “wife” twice a week. Getting angry and refusing his request, S turned him away. A few days afterwards, finding no one at home, Yousuf went to S’s room and forcibly had sex with her while threatening to kill her, her children and her husband if she told anyone. After much deliberation, S decided to tell her mother-in-law, risking a possibly outburst of scorn or a refusal to believe from her mother-in-law. To her surprise, the mother-in-law got furious while S narrated the incident, cursed her husband and told S that Yousuf used to do the same to his daughter before she got married and moved away. The mother-in-law, along with S, consequently went to a nearby MQM office and got assistance in filing a FIR against Yousuf. The case was thus brought to court. However, the Judge presiding over the hearings allowed Yousuf to be bailed before a statement could be made against the accused. The case now lies in the High Court for further trial.

Abdul Haadi Case: N was a Malaysian girl of 6 years. She had come back with her family to Pakistan when she was just under 1 year of age. She could barely speak in Urdu, though she understood the language well when spoken to. Her father was a Pakistan who married a Malysian woman during his time in that country. One day on her way back home, a man unknown to N (Abdul, aged 32), coming from the local mosque after saying his Maghrib prayers, stopped her on her way and bribing her with sweets, took her to a nearby Madrasa, where he took a room for both himself and N. There, Abdul tried to rape N, but her screams raised alarm. Abdul hid the girl and before he let her go, he bathed her with soap and water in an attempt to wash off any evidence of violence. N went back home and narrated the incident to her parents, which led the father to lodge a FIR against Abdul. However, during the 164 Statement in front of the Magistrate, Abdul confessed to his act and is undergoing trial for attempted rape.

Pannah Case: W’s mother was a domestic worker. She worked in a bungalow, where a 55 year old man Pannah resided. W’s father was a poor man and 9 year old W used to stay at home while both her parents worked hard to stay afloat. One day, Pannah asked W to come to his house on the pretext of needing some house work to be done. Seizing the opportunity to get W alone, Pannah raped W and gave her 5 rupees afterwards to quite her down. Due to her young age and the brutality of the act, W kept bleeding for days. After the parents noticed the bleeding, W told her parents about what had happened to her. The father promptly filed a FIR against Pannah.
At present, Pannah’s application for bail has been rejected in court twice, including one time that he forged the signatures of the complainant in order to get his release orders from court. However, even in the presence of such a strong case, there is pressure on W’s family to withdraw from the proceedings and come to a settlement with the accused. The reason they cite for it is that their family has gone through enough embarrassment already to want to take the case further, even if it means forgoing Pannah’s eventual conviction for rape.

Mohammed Jamil Case: P an 8 years old girl living in Ibrahim Hyderi (Korangi) was playing with her friends outside her home at around 8 P.M. The accused, Jamil, a Suzuki van driver, about 30 years of age drove by and offered to give the children a ride in his van. He put the 4 children in the back of the van, and P next to him in front. He drove the van and parked it behind a garbage dump about a 100 meters away from P’s home, gagged and raped her in the front seat of the van. Afterwards when P started to cry and become unconscious, he left her and her friends near the dump and scooted from the scene. P’s friends went to her house and related to the parents what had transpired. The parents came, recovered the unconscious P, took her to the police station and lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against the accused. The accused has been arrested and is behind bars; while the Suzuki van has been impounded as evidence.

Sohail and Saleem Case: R and S are two sisters about 21 and 12 years old respectively who live on the 4th floor of an apartment building in lyari. The grand mother of the two accused, Sohail 23 years and Saleem 31 years of age, also lives in the same apartment building. Saleem who works for a cable and internet firm, was on friendly terms with the survivors family and was a frequent visitor for fixing cable reception and faults. After R and S’s mother died and R was alone in the house, Saleem came armed with a gun and raped he, and threatened if she complained or said anything to her father he would kill all of them. R was threatened into silence, but after about 5 months she started feeling sick and her father took her to a lady doctor who examined her and pronounced her to be 5 months pregnant. The father was shocked and on returning home found out from his daughter about what had happened. Instead of confronting the culprit and taking him to court he decided to remain silent. The father arranged to have her married to boy of his clan, but after about 8 days the boy beat her up, threw her out of his house and divorced her. After a couple of months of her divorce a son was born and was given to Idhi Home for adoption. R was so affected by the trauma of her rape, forced marriage, divorce and having to give up her son for adopted that she died soon after. The father sent his youngest daughter S to buy salt form a grocery store located in the ground floor of the same apartment building. Sohail, the younger brother, who was waiting for near the stairway forcefully took her to the roof and raped her. A neighbor who happened to see this yelled for help and Sohail ran away. The neighbor brought the girl down and told the father what had happened. The father this time refused to remain silent, went to the police station and lodged a FIR against both the accused. The accused got themselves a “Bail before Arrest”, the police took no action, while the father was threatened with dire consequences if he persisted in continuing the case in court. The father came to WAR for help, we have had the bail before arrest of the accused cancelled and they have been arrested and put behind bars.

Sarfaraz Case: F an 8 year old girl lives with her mother and 35 years old step father in a one room dwelling in Mahmoodabad. The mother works as a maid while the father is jobless and stays at home. When the mother was at work, he used to rape F and threatened her that if she said anything about this to her mother he would kill both of them. Once during the night, the mother woke up to go to the washroom and discovered that her husband was lying in her daughter’s bed. She became suspicious and cross questioned her daughter when her husband was not home and found out the truth about what was happening to her. She confronted her husband with this but he denied the whole thing and the matter was hushed up to keep the marriage from falling apart.

After some time, the accused again started to sexually abuse F and this time the mother took action, left her husband with her daughter to live with her father. WAR has taken up this case of incest, a FIR has been lodged and the accused has been arrested and is behind bars.

Ibrahim Siddiqui Case: This is a domestic violence case which was referred to WAR by DIG Investigation Karachi. S is a mature women of about 30 years with two children and works at KESC. She married Ibrahim and went to live with his family. After marriage she found out that her husband was a drug addict and enjoyed beating her up. After the birth of her third child she could not stand the beating and decided to file for Khula (Divorce), but the family moved in and a reconciliation was arranged to save the marriage. When expecting her fourth child, he beat her up so severely that her brother had to take her to the hospital for treatment, after which she stayed with her him for recovery. Her husband came to her brothers house, beat him up also and threatened to kill everyone unless S went back to his home with him. After another two years their fifth child was born but there was no end to his domestic violence. He started the practice of keeping her locked up in the house while he was away at work. Then one day he beat her up with a metal rod so severely that she started bleeding from her head, after which he ran away from the house. F was now desperate to escape from her progressively violent husband. She sent for her brother, who took her to a hospital and got a medical report of her injuries. War is now helping her and she has applied for Khula. He has taken away the children, whom she is not allowed to meet.