The Federal Investigation Agency stated it had registered circumstances towards 36 folks accused of spreading misinformation concerning the case on social media.
Authorities, together with the province’s chief minister, stated there was no assault, as did the lady’s mother and father. But Punjab police on Thursday urged folks to share any details about the alleged rape.
Mauz Ullah, a pupil on the faculty the place the lady was allegedly raped, stated they have been protesting to hunt justice for her.
He stated he didn’t consider the faculty or police “as they stored altering their place” on the alleged assault. He stated the faculty initially denied any such incident occurred. “If no such incident had taken place, then why did they arrest a guard?” he requested.
The protests seem to have begun spontaneously. Student unions have been banned in Pakistan since 1984.
On Thursday, Usman Ghani, the top of the youth wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami opposition celebration, demanded an finish to the ban on pupil unions, saying they may have helped resolve the matter with out violence.
He stated circumstances of sexual abuse at instructional establishments are widespread.
“But the principle factor is the way you reply to make it possible for the attackers don’t get away with out getting arrested,” he stated.
Hasna Cheema, from the rights group Aurat Foundation, stated neither Pakistani police nor the media have been educated to deal with such delicate issues.
“They flip issues from dangerous to worse as an alternative of fixing them,” Cheema stated.
The Sustainable Social Development Organization stated final month that there have been 7,010 rape circumstances reported in Pakistan in 2023, virtually 95% of them in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province.
“However, attributable to social stigmas in Pakistan that discourage girls from getting assist, there’s a excessive likelihood that attributable to underreporting the precise variety of circumstances could also be even greater,” it stated.
This week’s protests come lower than a month after a lady stated she was gang-raped whereas on obligation throughout a polio vaccination drive in southern Sindh province.
Police arrested three males. Her husband threw her out of the home after the reported assault, saying she had tarnished the household identify.