Three arrested for allegedly gang-r*ping woman aboard moving train in Pakistan

The police in Pakistan have arrested three suspects for allegedly gang-r*ping a 25-year-old woman in an empty compartment of a moving train in a case that has seen widespread outrage from human rights activists in the south Asian country.

According to the police in a statement on Wednesday, the young woman was r*ped by the three men on the Karachi-bound train in another incident that has shocked the nation which has witnessed a rise in sexual violence.

“The 25-year-old mother of two children was on board the train last week when she was lured to an empty compartment by a ticket checker and three men raped her,” Railways Police chief Faisal Shahkar, said.

“Police arrested two suspects on Monday when the incident came to the light and a third one was captured on Tuesday,” Shahkar added.

Read also :Police arrests leader of rape gang, recovers AK-47 rifles, charms

The incident has drawn anger from human rights bodies, activists and the public as most people called for stringent punishment to the culprits.

In an editorial on Wednesday, prominent Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, called the incident “a ghastly crime” and questioned why proper security arrangements were not made in the train.

“Another horrific incident of sexual violence has come to light, underscoring how a cavalier approach to security arrangements can embolden criminally inclined men to indulge their worst instincts. Women’s safety is the barometer of a nation’s values,” the editorial said.

Last year, Pakistan’s parliament passed a new anti-rape law that allows courts to order the chemical castration of offenders in some cases, but very little has changed since.

The new law was enacted in response to the gang rape of a Pakistan-French mother in front of her children on a highway in the eastern city of Lahore.

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