A 20-year-old woman was gang-raped, killed and hanged from a tree in
Pakistan in a case that bears a chilling resemblance to a double rape
and murder that caused outrage in neighbouring India last month.
Pakistani
police said Muzammil Bibi was attacked by three men in a field in the
impoverished Layyah area of densely populated Punjab province.
Senior
officer Sadaqat Ali Chohan said: 'This is the first time in my 22 years
of service in the police that I have seen such a case, where a girl was
raped in this way and found hanging from a tree.
WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE
WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE: A policeman stands near the body of Muzammil
Bibi, 20, after policemen lowered her after she was found hanging from a
tree in the town of Nawan Kot, located in Pakistan's Punjab province
June 20, 2014
'We have heard of such cases in India but never in Pakistan. The
girl's clothes were torn. We took her down and moved her to hospital.
'Her body had signs of resistance. We have arrested three individuals who have confessed to the crime.'
According to police, the 20-year-old resisted the rape and her attackers strangled her.
Police said her parents spent all night looking for her and found her body hanging the next morning.
In
a shockingly similar crime which took place in May, two teenage cousins
were found hanging from a tree after being raped in the north of India.
Three men have been arrested over the killings. Two policemen were held on suspicion of trying to cover up the crime.
Shortly after the incident, a lawmaker
from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party described
rape as a social crime, saying 'sometimes it's right, sometimes it's
wrong.'
The controversial remarks came as
political leaders of Uttar Pradesh - the state where the two cousins aged 12
and 14 were raped and hanged - faced criticism for
failing to visit the scene.
Another
regional politician from Modi's party, the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), said the crime of rape could only be considered to
have been committed if it is reported to police.
But despite a rape being reported in India every 21 minutes on average, law
enforcement failures mean that such crimes are often not reported.
The cases have triggered a debate throughout the region about violence against women.
Brutal: Women activists of Bharatiya Janata Party, flag seen top,
face police water cannons as they demonstrate for women's rights
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